Cinema Review: Ingrid Goes West

I cannot find a bad word to write about this bittersweet and abrasively topical movie.

First, and not least of all, it provided me with the blessed opportunity to avoid having to sit through Thor, but much more than that, it was about what is happening to millions of young people now and is genuinely confronting. We first meet Ingrid Thorburn (Aubrey Plaza) when she storms into the reception of a friend’s wedding to which she has not been invited to spray the bride with mace. From the outset, it is hard to feel sympathy for Ingrid, for she is mindlessly addicted to her phone and social media. Her self-worth, her whole sense of who she is, is dependent on likes, comments and followers.

Obsessed with Taylor Sloane (Elizabeth Olsen), a glamorous superstar on Instagram, after receiving an inheritance she moves to Los Angeles and hangs out at Taylor’s fave spots, hoping to meet her idol (why is Venice Beach so famous? It looks horribly tacky). Coincidence lands her in Taylor’s world and Ingrid, as a limpet clings to a shark, ingratiates herself into her idol’s orbit of cyber-fame to which she has so slavishly wanted to belong.

Director Matt Spicer is scathing of the shallowness of the cult of celebrity that celebrates names and faces who are famous only for being famous, but he does allow them to speak for themselves while saving his ire – and grudging pity – for Ingrid, who is both stupid and inconsiderate of others.

The selfie generation is too easy to ridicule for those of us who, as teenagers, were not hammered by its omnipotence, so we should not be too hasty in dismissing Ingrid as simply foolish (even if she is). She is devoured by envy and driven to the point where she loses touch with her own identity. Only her landlord, Dan (O’Shea Jackson – a beautifully natural performance) can see who she really is. The last scene is unbearably but unavoidably truthful. Try and catch it, it’s one of the year’s best.