Movie Review: Aubrey Plaza Does It for the 'Gram in "Ingrid Goes West"

Ingrid Goes West is a biting black comedy about fakers, phonies and Instagram feeds, with #nofilter.

Aubrey Plaza doesn’t literally live inside the internet, though you’d be forgiven for thinking she does, given how often our feeds are flooded with GIFs of her Parks and Recreation character April Ludgate.

But in Matt Spicer’s Ingrid Goes West, she plays a woman stuck inside the biosphere of social media; someone whose entire existence depends on the validation of Instagram followers and influencers.

Doing it for the ‘Gram isn’t just a personal-branding strategy for Ingrid. The ‘Gram is life. Sorry, I meant to say #lyfe.

Plaza, whose characters usually don’t rely on validation from anyone, is a more versatile actress than she gets credit for. We know she’s a master deadpan comedian, yet she’s proven to be just as adept at manic villainy as well, particularly in the TV show Legion. In this, she finds a middle ground: Manic? Yes. Villainous? A little. However, vulnerable and sympathetic, even when stealing a dog? Yeah, kinda.

Ingrid is not well. She abandons her life in Pennsylvania after a mental break, and moves to L.A., with the goal of sneaking into the physical space of online ‘It’ girl Taylor Sloane (Elizabeth Olsen). Following her #paid recommendations on Insta, Ingrid buys the same blousy, wood-sprite outfits, bleaches her hair the same bronde colour, and visits the same organic-vegan brunch spots, all while trying to catch Taylor’s eye. When that fails, she steals Taylor’s dog, returning it and taking her reward in friendship.

How long can Ingrid keep up the façade that she too is a free-spirited Insta-star in the making? (After Taylor uploads a strategically-composed snap of them visiting Joshua Tree, Ingrid’s account, @IngridGoesWest, gathers thousands of adoring fans.) Surprisingly, a while. It helps that Taylor is self-involved and that her way of life is so easily—albeit expensively—replicated. The only threat to their surface-level BFFness is Taylor’s brother Nicky (Billy Magnussen), who doesn’t buy Ingrid’s BS one bit.

The arrival of Nicky—played with the energetic, intimidating, shirtless abandon of Alfred Molina in Boogie Nights—takes Ingrid Goes West down a dark route, with Ingrid confronted by exposure and considering violent reprisal. Then again, Ingrid’s tale begins from a dark—if slightly more relatable—place, as she lays at home, neurotically double-tapping every photo in her feed. In that way, writer-director Spicer and co-writer David Branson Smith paint us all as homicidal maniacs in the making.

Before Ingrid Goes West can become the next Heathers or To Die For, it pulls back on the satire to sympathetically examine its fragile ecosystem of needy personalities. Olsen’s Taylor—who can’t stop calling things her "favourite, ever"—is never actually nefarious, and there’s at least a kernel of authenticity to her, even if it was inspired by her artist husband Ezra (Wyatt Russell). Ingrid also gets an authentic relationship to save her from complete Insta-immersion, thanks to Dan Pinto (O’Shea Jackson Jr.), an aspiring screenwriter with a Batman fetish who sees through her fake persona and seems to genuinely like the person underneath. Jackson, who might have previously been accused of getting his break via nepotism (it helps to be cast as your own father in his biopic), justifies his stardom with his hugely likeable and charismatic turn here. May his GIFs soon flood our feeds too.

So, is Ingrid Goes West pro- or anti-social media? As the film meets its climax, Instagram becomes both Ingrid’s self-destructive vice and saviour. It’s not surprising Spicer bunted (put stories of Russia’s collusion in the U.S. election via Facebook opposite the #MeToo hashtag deluge, and you try to argue for or against social media). But by refusing to take Ingrid Goes West to its logical, absurdist conclusion, Spicer doesn’t invite the personal reflection on our internet usage that a more brazen, gonzo ending might have inspired.

Instead, it’ll have to settle on containing some captivating performances and being a funny if problematic paean to social media, the cause of and solution to all of life’s problems.

3.5/5

In selected cinemas now. Rated MA15+ for strong coarse language.

Photo: Rialto Distribution