Spree

Honestly enjoyed this. This and ingrid goes west are my top two fav social media based films! Both highlights the danger of social media, influencing, having followers, needing approval from strangers and mental health issues.

Not gonna lie, I have aged out of the live-streaming demographic; so this out-of-the-woodwork film was a genuinely pleasant surprise.

"Spree" is going for satire on the empty pursuit of followers and the movie nails it. Joe Keery really brings this goofy kid to life; his desperation echoes that of Patrick Bateman (with some nice "Nightcrawler" sociopathy thrown in), clearly trying too hard to build that social media brand. His performance here is an eye-grabber, and I do hope that it helps broaden his appeal.

I quite enjoyed myself and found something much deeper than the marketing had implied. Keery's great in the role and it's evident that that plenty of thought and effort went into this. It's darkly funny, it's twisted and I absolutely had to see how all of this would end.

Started off great. 4chan incel creating content and gives up and becomes a murderer.

Sadly this film went on for too long, just became stupid and didn't live up to its potential

The problem with this film - a take on social media and likes - is that it tries to pack too many issues into its screen time. Its other problem is is plit-screen or multi-screens many times and, on top of this, provides running social media commentary as well. It's just all too much to take in.

What this film sets out to try and do has been done a lot better; for example the Black Mirror episode "Nodedive".

Five stars for trying and for having one or two laughs.

I've been watching movies based around social media, and Spree does a lot of things right in that regard. Characters are on a livestream for half the movie. The comments from those livestreams are HILARIOUS and spot on. The language is contemporary ("incel", "beta", etc.) The director is 34, so this all makes sense. I like how characters weee introduced too.

Still, Spree is a bit of a mess. I can't really find the reason why. But the movie is only an hour and a half, and I took a nap midway through. It's missing something, but that's kind of the point. Really Spree deserves a 4.5, but in context with the kind of movie it is, I give it a bit of leeway.