The Influencer – The Social Media Nightmare
Director: Meghan Weinstein
Writer: Meghan Weinstein (Screenplay)
Starring: Kasia Szarek, Shantell Yasmine Abeydeera, Janeva Zentz, Victoria D Wells, Ian Richard Jones, Mark Valeriano
Plot: A popular social-media influencer named Abbie Rose finds her Hollywood home overtaken by a group of activists who hack her social media empire to carry out a risky plan with a huge payout.
Tagline – you are what you buy..
Runtime: 1 Hour 30 Minutes
There may be spoilers in the rest of the review
Story: The Influencer starts as we meet social-media influencer Abbie Rose (Szarek) who has built up a massive following through the years, with her own team of interns who help keep her on top of the world. With the latest negotiation showing how ruthless Abbie can be in this world, she gets the money she wants to make this happen.
Abbie’s night changes when she finds herself being held hostage in her own home by Two (Zentz), Three (Abeydeera), Four (Wells) and Five (Jones), who have their own plans for Abbie, wanting to use her stardom to get their message over.
Thoughts on The Influencer
Characters & Performances – Abbie Rose is the social media superstar that has an empire that keeps her on top and gives her power to get the best deals from the biggest companies. She is shallow when it comes to her life, being interested in her own appearance and maintaining her brand, over keeping herself on the path she once created for herself. She is being forced into making videos to promote something that will potentially destroy the empire. Kasia Szarek plays into this role wonderfully, giving us the shallow imagine, while having the smarts off camera. Two, Three, Four and Five are the people that are holding Abbie hostage, forcing her to complete the videos for the leader One, a voice on the phone conducting everything. The performances from the cast work well through the film, showing the different mindsets the captors are involved in.
Story – The story here follows a social media superstar that will see her life turned upside when she gets held hostage by a group of people who want her to make a certain type of videos, ones that could end up destroying her empire. This is a nice twist to on many ideas we have seen before, certain ones we can’t go into here, but diving into the world of a social media star, showing the power they have in the world can be used for anything, which makes for the key factor of the film. Nearly all of this film does focus on the behind the scenes of the social media superstar, showing us that we will never know what is going on behind what they have created.
Themes – The Influencer is a crime comedy thriller that uses the comedy to show how the social media star’s life goes, while the crime thriller side comes from her being held hostage about what is going on, along with the motivation behind the captor’s decisions. The film keeps most of the film within the singular location, Abbie’s home, which will show us just how within her own world she truly is.
Final Thoughts – The Influencer is a great examination into the social media world and what can be happening behind the scenes.