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Games

What’s a Movie or Game That Really Gets Social Media Obsession?

‘Ingrid Goes West’ is a dark, hilarious examination of Instagram friendship.
Images courtesy Neon Rated

I saw Ingrid Goes West this weekend, a new Aubrey Plaza movie about social media obsession in the grand tradition of movies about psychotic women (a la Single White Female). It was great—a delicious dark comedy about just how stupid, vapid, and fake our friendships can be, no matter how pretty they look with Instagram filters on.

In it, Plaza plays Ingrid, a deeply disturbed young woman dealing with emotional strife, and putting all of her feelings into false, obsessive friendships with popular women she meets on social media. She bounces from one creepy episode to her latest, with Taylor (Elizabeth Olsen, perfect in the role), a trendy social media influencer who has the perfect life. At least, that's how she curates it.

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Ingrid moves to Venice Beach to stalk Taylor, and eventually becomes a close friend. She does all manner of creepy stuff: kidnapping her dog in order to stage a heroic rescue (and meeting), spending inordinate money on trips once they're buddies, taking photos of Taylor in her sleep. The movie goes to some deep, dark, uncomfortable places, but it never stops being funny, thanks to Plaza's hilariously awkward delivery.

So, it's a rad, potentially guilty pleasure as a comedy, but I found it on-point as well, particularly for the weird relationships that social media can foster.

Don't get me wrong: I have met many wonderful people on Twitter. And I have celebrity or pseudo-celebrity crushes and connections, just like everyone who spends… way too much time on the platform. But I've also had creepy encounters, and encountered boundary lines that can be blurred by sharing so much of your life on a public platform—which can be such a joy at times. It's bizarre territory, and this movie examines the darkest implications of that faux-intimacy.

I understand why Ingrid is so obsessed with Taylor. She has what looks like a perfect, happy life. She eats (and takes award-winning photos of) the best food. She has the coolest clothes, and goes to the most beautiful places. She has a hot husband who encourages her creativity. Everyone loves her! She's bouncy, fun, and warm. She makes everyone in her vicinity feel important and awesome. She is, basically, the 2017 picture of the "perfect woman," living a perfect woman's life.

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Of course that isn't the case, and the movie complicates Taylor, to some degree, and shows issues she has with her better half, who is wildly uncomfortable with how much she promotes her life. Instagram Taylor is a curated persona, and the real person has issues, like everyone else.

Who doesn't want a perfect life, after all?

But for Ingrid, who is lonely and disturbed, that image is intoxicating, and she'll do anything to get close to it and mimic it.

Who doesn't want a perfect life, after all? In sunny, postcard-worthy southern California, with Joan Didion quotes all over the place? With bubbly friends and looks? The film is both harsh and sympathetic to the image of "perfection" Ingrid sees in Taylor. It knows how fake it is, it laughs at the trendy LA cafes and Taylor's paper-thin proclamations about her favorite novels.

But it also feels for Ingrid and her hollow life. Ingrid—and her Batman-obsessed buddy Daniel (O'Shea Jackson Jr.)—are the only people who really feel fully alive in the film. I couldn't help but cheer them on.

What do you think, friends? Is there a game or movie that hits social media obsession for you?

Have thoughts? Swing by Waypoint's forums to share them!