A Brief Synopsis: Ingrid (Aubrey Place) a very troubled woman, who has just been released from a mental institution, is social media obsessed. She starts to cyber stalk Taylor (Elizabeth Olsen), a photographer. She decides to move west, to Venice California to physically stalk Taylor, (married to Ezra played by Wyatt Russell). Going so far as to steal Taylor's dog from her house, to "find and return him" just to get an introduction to Taylor and inject herself into Taylor's life. Being extremely grateful to Ingrid for helping them find their dog, Taylor and Ezra open their lives to her and start inviting her out. Ingrid knows all of the "ins and outs" of Taylor's days and studies her. Nothing is sacred on social media.
Ingrid moves into a one bedroom apartment. She is always using her landlord, Dan (O'Shea Jackson Jr.), who crushes on her instantly. She convinces him to play her "boyfriend" to impress Taylor, Ezra and Taylor's brother, Nicky (Billy Magnussen). Nicky discovers her secret obsession and blackmails Ingrid, whom he calls Olga. Ingrid convinces Dan to help her kidnap and scare Nicky, because Dan thinks that Nicky beat Ingrid up. So much more happens after that, but because it's integral to the to the end of the film I won't say anything more about the movie.
My Social Media Perspective: My husband and I were discussing the film on our way home. While yes, Ingrid was mentally disturbed, Taylor was the worst. Taylor was a hipster millennial, who posted pictures about her avocado toast (Girl, I grew up eating that in the 80's!!) and everything else about her day. Her life was too "perfect".
I tell my students that social media is a wonderful thing, it's also the worst invention mankind created. It doesn't make us more social, it makes us less social. Yesterday my hubs and I went on a whale watching excursion in Newport Beach. I was so obsessed with trying to capture the perfect shot of the dolphins surfing our waves, I almost missed a pod of mamas and babies. I put my phone away. Who care if my "Snap Fam" didn't get to see it. It they want to see it, then they should go on a whale watching trip.
Today was our annual family picnic in the park. I took a few snaps, for the family who missed out, and I took a few photos, for my mom who requested them. Then I put my phone away. We're so quick to capture the moment, that we miss out on being in the present, we miss out on life.
My mom was telling our friend Jessie, that ever since she got her tablet and a Facebook account, she hasn't been able to finish a book. We used to be in a book club with Jessie and a few other friends. The fact that she is on her tablet all the time and doesn't read anymore, something she loved, is sad.
I'm guilty of this too. I have a Yelp account, a Goodreads account, a Snap Chat, a blog, a Twitter account, a Facebook account and three Instagram accounts, one for just family and friends, one connected to my blog and one for my dogs. I do get satisfaction from seeing the likes and reading the comments. It's the affirmation that people like me. It's that stupid pleasure seeking ID that rules over my social media accounts. I think that I'm going to start limiting my social media usage. I'm going to go off Facebook, and test this for a month. I want to conduct a little experiment and see how long I can actually go without checking my social media accounts. I'm not going to delete anything, but I am going to take a break. I need to spend more time living in the moment and enjoying the things around me!
We put so much of our lives out there for everyone to see. Why, my life really isn't that spectacular!
Recommendation: This movie was a modern day Single White Female. I think this movie was AMAZING! Everyone with a social media account should go see it. The acting was great, even by Wyatt Russell. I didn't really care for him in Table 19 (which I recently saw again and sort of liked it), but he isn't that bad in this. Aubrey Place I never cared for, but she deserves to get some awards for Ingrid. This really was a very well done film. This movie is rated R.
To quote British political commentator, journalist, blogger, etc... Milo Yiannopoulos, "Shallow emotions. An incapacity to feel genuine love. A need for stimulation. Frequent verbal outbursts. Poor behavioral controls. These are just some of the things that social media are encouraging in all of us. They're also a pretty comprehensive diagnostic checklist for sociopathy - in fact, that's where I got the list."
This movie gets 5 out of 5 Pink Gerber Daisies. Go and watch it, you may learn a thing or two about yourself.
PS. It's ironic that I'm on social media writing about how much social media has ruined our lives!
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