In this well organized thriller by Kurtis David More durable, Canadian actor Cassandra Naud holds her personal as a type of social media Tom Ripley, out in Thailand preying on vacuous, smartphone-toting influencers whereas coveting their silky life. Damaged down into 4 elements following completely different characters, the movie dabbles in however doesn’t wholly conform to the now-standard satirical takedown of Twenty first-century popinjays. There’s one thing darker and extra solipsistic at work right here: Naud’s repeated spiel of “They gained’t even discover you’re gone. No one cares” is simply as rehearsed and trite as different airheaded Insta-platitudes.
Her character, CW, first will get her claws into Madison (Emily Tennant), a fellow American making good for her feeds however really moping across the Thai coast as a result of she’s having a tough time along with her British boyfriend and supervisor Ryan (Rory J Saper). So when CW steps in at a bar to guard her from a sharking expat, Madison is glad to be swept into the wake of this free-spirited font of native secrets and techniques. Weeks later, she has gone lacking, CW has headed to Bangkok to focus on Madison’s bougier and extra assured clone Jessica (Sara Canning), and Ryan – rattled by the radio silence from his girlfriend – jumps on a airplane.
Influencer is harking back to Wild Issues in its lascivious cynicism, although fittingly for the sterile digital occasions, nobody really has any intercourse. Everybody within the movie is venal and self-serving to differing levels, even the nominal saviour Ryan, although in his braying approach he’s probably the most perceptive of the bunch. Utilizing Naud’s birthmark as a fast signifier of CW’s evil would appear the type of disfigurement prejudice you’d hope cinema was outgrowing. However it suits right here as a commentary on the social media world’s fixation with look, and a type of distinction that CW exploits. “You’re distinctive,” Ryan reassures her about her on-line potential.
More durable and co-writer Tesh Guttikonda don’t delve beneath the pores and skin of their characters sufficient to totally flesh out their critique and convey Influencer into full psychological thriller territory. We discover out nothing about CW’s previous or motivations, solely her marks’ guesswork about her. However the four-part shuffle retains it energetic, and Naud is an imposing black gap.
