Spree

So much more than a social media parody of the desire to be popular and quite likely just mimicking events in the future that will become increasingly gruesome in this disposable and voyeuristic world.

Fact and fiction spiralled and entwined within shades of black and white from zenith to nadir, switched on to off, between one and zero, from beginning to end - there's no black and white, only shades.

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.

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.

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

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.