Title – Ingrid Goes West (2017)

Director – Matt Spicer (feature debut)

Cast – Aubrey Plaza, Elizabeth Olsen, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Wyatt Russell, Billy Magnussen

Plot – Mentally unhinged and social media obsessed Ingrid (Plaza) begins an unhealthy obsession with LA based social media personality Taylor Sloane (Olsen) which leads Ingrid to make a move to the city of angels in hope of emulating Sloane’s lifestyle and hopefully become real-life friends.

“Talk about something cool, like food or clothes or Joan Didion”

Review by Eddie on 01/05/2018

An imaginative musing on the pitfalls of social media and look at a day and age in which every smashed avocado lunch or barista made coffee needs to be documented for likes and comments, Ingrid Goes West may not always ring true with its narrative movements but Matt Spicer’s visually appealing and well-acted dramedy is one of last year’s hidden gems.

Focussing on Aubrey Plaza’s mentally unhinged and lonely Ingrid, fresh out of the looney bin and unhealthily obsessed with Elizabeth Olsen’s California based social media identity Taylor Sloane, Ingrid Goes West is often a scarily possible examination of what can occur when a person begins to live their life through the social media obsessed world and get lost in the make believe world that it can often represent.

Ingrid offers Plaza another unflattering role, showcasing an actress that’s not afraid to go to the dark depths of humanity and be a part of potentially financially risky ventures and she acquits herself well in a role that will make you cringe and squirm more often than not as Ingrid moves to LA to be closer to Sloane, which eventually leads up to an unnatural and increasingly unhealthy friendship with the social media star.

Within this friendship that starts up between the two polar opposite beings, both of whom are suffering from different forms of social media obsessed livelihoods and dreams, it offers Plaza and Olsen a chance to showcase their acting wears and both performers elevate Spicer’s film with their on-song turns, Olsen once more impressing in another strong performance that strengthens the case for her being one of the most reliable actresses in the business today.

Alongside its two impressive leads, Spicer’s film looks great also and features great use of its Californian surrounds while Spicer and co-writer David Branson Smith script feels in tune with current social media climates, only letting itself down by a few to many narrative happenings that begin to mount up and unfortunately make Ingrid Goes West feel increasingly unbelievable from a starting-off point that feels scarily plausible.

Final Say –

Ingrid Goes West will make you think twice when you next log into post the latest photo of yourself on whatever social media platform you frequent and thanks to standout performances from its two lead actresses, Spicer’s impressive debut film overcomes some highly implausible plot developments to become a memorable and in many ways important musing on our growing dependency to be connected to an often fanciful online world.

3 ½ Batman Forever soundtracks out of 5