Plaza shines in thoughtfully odd Ingrid Goes West

Elizabeth Olsen and Aubrey Plaza in Ingrid Goes West. Image courtesy Neon Rated.

What makes Ingrid Goes West fun in a strange way is how it makes audiences feel and think as the credit rolls. It’s entirely fair to have an icky feeling when leaving the theater, perturbed by the oddness of Aubrey Plaza's eponymous social media stalker, her easy ability to manipulate herself into the life of the seemingly perfect Taylor Sloane (Elizabeth Olsen) troublesome in many ways. The movie is designed in part to cause the viewer to feel a little off from enjoying it, whether it is the awkward humor or the hints of sympathy directed toward Ingrid. This movie excels at being enjoyable awkward.

Ingrid Goes West is ostensibly a comedy about a stalker who inserts herself into a stranger's life out of a need for some love and affection. Along the way Ingrid disrupts the lives of Taylor's husband (Wyatt Russell), brother (Billy Magnussen) and a landlord who has a severe crush on her (a charmingly nerdy O'Shea Jackson Jr.). That this movie still classifies as a comedy and not a horror/thriller like Single White Female (a movie that gets a name drop in this one) is due to a solid script from writers David Branson Smith and Matt Spicer (Spicer also directs) and a killer lead performance by Plaza. Best known for as the dour April Ludgate, Plaza finds the right balance between subtly strange and completely off kilter, keeping what could be a caricature very human and pretty funny. She makes it funny and sad to watch Ingrid scroll through Instagram and like every post she sees, a meaningless gesture that is heartbreaking in the loneliness it projects.

Scenes like that make it easy to paint Ingrid Goes West as some sort of parable about the dangers of social media and how much the spread of otherwise useless personal information to a mass audience lessens the importance of personal connection. And it sort of is a warning of sorts, although it is less about how someone like Ingrid can sidle her way into someone's life and more about what social media allows people to do. Several post modern writers have made this point before, but the downside to social media is the emptiness it promotes. Taylor is defined largely by her social media presence, enough to replace any semblance of personality she had prior to becoming an Instagram star. Her intellectual strummings are gleaning by slight readings of important work, the image of being intelligent and thoughtful just as valuable as actually being so. Quoting Norman Mailer or Joan Didion means nothing if there's no understanding of why they said it and what that quote means on a personal level. So it makes sense for Taylor to feel repulsed by Ingrid as the film progresses. Ingrid is a facsimile of the Instagram starlet whose attempts at copying result in her becoming a slightly more real version of Taylor herself. Taylor pretends to read the texts she flaunts; Ingrid does so and finds meaning to it. That Ingrid is better at being Taylor than Taylor is a little horrifying on its own merits, as it exposes Taylor for being a shell of a free spirit. Even if Ingrid's obsessive nature hadn't been revealed, Smith and Spicer make it clear there is no way the relationship could last beyond a few fleeting moments.

Then again, a person can only achieve a certain level of fame if they haven't provided their audience at least a modicum of honesty to go with it. Despite being a failed attempt at simulacrum, Ingrid is at least honest about her emptiness and tries to find something to fill the void that is her life. She does show a few moments of honest sympathy, more than Taylor musters, and Ingrid Goes West concludes with the most honest moment of her life. The result is a sad and terrifying happy ending, a moment in which a character wins and it remains unclear what she'll do with her victory. What little growth Ingrid shows in the film isn't rooted in the firmest of soil, and the glow of joy on her face is disturbing and a testament to Plaza's performance; she sells the ambiguity of the moment perfectly.

All of this is a little heavy for a concept, but it goes to show there is a good amount of subtext worth diving into in Ingrid Goes West, a credit to Smith and Spicer for finding depth in a technology rooted in human emptiness. Smith and Spicer understand that the value of Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, Twitter and other social media platforms resides within that emptiness itself, not just finding the best version of a person but revealing the ugliness underneath the facade. That the exploration of the shallowness is this entertaining and well made is a bonus.

Review: Four and a half out of Five Stars

Click here to see the trailer.

Rating: R

Run time: 97 minutes

Genre: Comedy

Ask Away

Target audience: Viewers who want to see Aubrey Plaza go off the rails.

Take the whole family?: This isn't the hardest R film, but still keep the kids at home.

Theater or Netflix?: Not a vital theater experience but worth the trip if it’s playing near you.

What kind of funny is this movie?: While this is a comedy, it isn't quite a guffaw inducing movie. The humor is tied less to antics and more to a mix of awkward humor and outright nihilistic jokes in which the punchline is the action didn't really matter anyway. This is definitely one of those movies in which a personal view of the comedy will define the appreciation of the movie.

Watch this as well?: This is pretty comparable to The Talented Mr. Ripley with more comedy and slightly less homoerotic subtext to work from.

'Everybody Wants Some' features beer, brahs and profundity

Blake Jenner and Glen Powell in "Everybody Wants Some!" Image courtesy Paramount Pictures.

It's difficult to find any of the main characters likable for a large portion of Richard Linklater's new film, “Everybody Wants Some!” They are more often than not dumb and brutish, obsessed with alcohol and sex and goofy antics that sometimes devolve to cruelty. Even the film acknowledges these guys are typical dumb jocks treated with fealty by a system that genuflects to their athletic prowess. And then, all of a sudden, these little inklings of melancholy and philosophical musings begin to creep up within what started off as stereotypes and it becomes difficult to avoid falling for these idiots a bit; as many of them realize, life won't be much sweeter than it is for them right now. And, as they figure it, it’s best to not let that opportunity go to waste.

Right now, for the characters in “Everybody Wants Some!”, is 1980 at Southeast Texas University, three days before the start of the first semester for freshman Jake (a charming Blake Jenner). He's a new pitcher for the schools high-caliber baseball program and moves in to a decrepit off campus house with a few teammates. Among this crop of excitable boys is superstar and team captain McReynolds (Tyler Hoechlin), space cadet stoner/pitcher Willoughby (Wyatt Russell), second baseman Dale (J. Quinton Johnson), the chatty Finn (Glen Powell), and amateur braggadocio Jay Niles (Juston Street). The players spend those three days bar hopping, brawling, hosting an epic party, attending an epic party, making dumb bets, mocking one another, and, for Jenner's Jake, courting attractive coed Beverly (Zoey Deutch).

And, well, that's about it for the plot to “Everybody Wants Some!” It's a pretty typical flick for writer/director Linklater, who spends almost two hours observing the characters waste away the first few days before the school year begins. It's a very long time to spend with people who are, at least on the surface, obnoxious jackanapes obsessed with causing destruction and mayhem wherever they go. This is a privileged class of people on the college campus, a team that, as the players outline, is the only successful program the college has to offer at all. They're effectively the default kings of campus, never required to go to class or have an actual major; their default line when asked about what they study is to state their presence on the team.

It does take a while to get to the full point of sympathy for these guys, so it helps that Linklater shows off his underrated sense of humor to keep the audience invested. Linklater is smart enough to make the puerile jocks the butt of the jokes, whether it's pranks amongst themselves or a female character shooting down sad, pathetic advances toward her. The audience is meant to laugh at them, but not in a particularly mean-spirited fashion either; for all their flaws and grandiose acts of stupidity, Linklater clearly cares for the group of guys he's created.  (Linklater played baseball for Sam Houston State for a couple of years in the early ’80s, adding some autobiographical context to this movie.)

“Everybody Wants Some!” never loses its sense of humor, but it begins to add little clues to offer sympathy for the adult-like devils. Much of it comes from Powell's Finn, who talks endlessly about a litany of topics while dabbling in some legitimate profundity when he isn't trying to talk a girl or two into something or other. He is very cognizant that their life as baseball players will probably end after college, that pro ball isn't in their stars unless they happen to be as gifted as Hoechlin's McReynolds (Linklater demonstrates the gap in talent with a brilliant scene). The saddest moment of the film comes when one player realizes his opportunity has come and gone, and he walks off with one final little wave of philosophy and a peace offering left behind for his former teammates.

Much of what happens in “Everybody Wants Some!” occurs amid a conversation, snuck in so Jenner’s Jake can listen in on the commentary. He’s portrayed as more of an explorer than a traditional baseball player, a person who will eagerly hit up a punk show and compare Sisyphus to baseball while absorbing knowledge and philosophy to prepare for whatever happens tomorrow. It's funny then that his final moment should find him falling asleep in his first class, shortly after the instructor writes “frontiers are where you find them” on the chalkboard and as the somewhat sardonic “Good Times Roll” plays for the audience's benefit. He's embracing his preferred status on campus, cognizant that what he needs to learn will come outside his classroom’s walls.

Review: Four out of Five Stars

Click here to see a trailer.

Rating: R

Run time: 116 minute

Genre: Comedy

Ask Away

Target audience: People nostalgic for other days and Richard Linklater zealots.

Take the whole family?: The film does feature a bit of nudity and a sizable amount of sexual content and swearing. So, probably not.

Theater or Netflix?: I still recommend taking a theater trip for this one, but you can get away with waiting a few months for streaming versions.

Will the soundtrack get stuck in your head?: Let's just say you might load up a few songs on YouTube while working the following morning. “Everybody Wants Some!” just owns the music, from the opening of “My Sharona” to that last song by The Cars before the end credits commence. There is even a cute music video featuring the cast rapping in the style of The Sugarhill Gang during the back end of the roll.

Watch this as well?: “Dazed and Confused,” “Slacker,” and the three entries into the “Before” trilogy offer the best representation of Linklater's sensibilities as a director, along with his proclivity to capture profundity within just a few hours or days.