Influencer
She stands alone on a sandy beach in Thailand, gazing at the sea, the rock formations and the sky; she has the perfect clothes and the perfect hair, she has her camera and her tripod to capture the moment, and she has her followers: she is an influencer, but the image Madison has cultivated, expressing herself in soundbites of motivational empowerment, is not what she feels, let down by her boyfriend Ryan who was supposed to take the trip with her.
An attractive woman travelling alone, even at the boutique resorts she frequents Madison is not immune to unwanted attention, but following a swooping rescue by fellow solo traveller CW who saves her from the boorish Brit propping up the bar Madison makes a timely new friend; delayed two weeks waiting for a replacement passport from the embassy in Bangkok when her own is stolen, by bike and boat Madison takes a trip with the same near-stranger who warned her to be wary of strangers.
Serving as a cautionary tale of misplaced trust in the age of online stalkers and social engineering, director Kurtis David Harder’s Influencer deconstructs the lifestyle and culture which has made stars of Instagram users even as it depends on it, Madison (Dirk Gently’s Holistic Detective Agency‘s Emily Tennant) the single white female who becomes the object of obsession of CW (Snowpiercer‘s Cassandra Naud), mistress of manipulative avarice.
Needing someone to talk to but finding her friends are as vapid as the personas they have crafted to gain attention, Madison herself is rarely out of range of a lens to which she pouts or poses with a prestigious beauty product while CW is more camera shy; ostensibly because of her prominent birthmark, it soon becomes apparent there are other reasons she prefers to remain anonymously in the background.
Madison’s vulnerability making her a target waiting to be taken advantage of, Jessica (The Vampire Diaries’ Sara Canning) turns out to be a greater challenge requiring a different approach, CW adopting different personas and adapting them to a shifting situation further disrupted by the arrival of Ryan (The Legend of Tarzan’s Rory J Saper), concerned about Madison’s erratic communications and hoping to surprise his model girlfriend.
Shot in luxury resorts and on tropical beaches of golden sand, Madison’s ennui is an indulgence of idle privilege few are fortunate to experience and she has done little to deserve, but CW is no tragic Tom Ripley, using his talents to reach for what others have which always remains out of reach, the film instead coasting along on those vistas to sell Harder and Tesh Guttikonda’s tale the real influencer at play is cinematographer David Schuurman whose camera captures the sunset dream and the unspoken cost.
Influencer will be available on Shudder from Friday 26th May
