Capsule Review: "Ingrid Goes West"

This was one of the best movies I saw at Sundance. Over time I can see this being a defining movie of the current generation of click-bait, photo snapping millennials. Aubrey Plaza gives a towering performance. Matt Spicer also gives us auspiciously promising filmmaking debut.

If there’s any recent film that has dealt with our craze for social media in the most intelligent and assured of ways, it would be Matt Spicer’s “Ingrid Goes West.” The film has a career-making performance from Aubrey Plaza as an emotionally unbalanced, celebrity obsessed millennial who decides to head out west and stalk an Instagram celebrity (a pitch-perfect Elizabeth Olsen) to the brink of martyrdom. It’s one of the best dark comedies to come around in ages and smartly updates the stalker genre for the social media generation.

If you haven’t had the chance to see “Ingrid Goes West,” it expands today in theaters nationwide. What is also being released today is the kick-ass soundtrack that Spicer and company assembled for the film. The compilation has just ten songs, but all of them play an integral part in pushing the movie’s stalker narrative forward. After all, how can you cover millennial angst on screen without a little dance pop? The soundtrack is an eclectic mix of genres that range from the aforementioned dance pop to new wave and even all the way to 70’s soul. Also, if you’ve seen the film, you know just how important K-Ci & Jojo’s ‘90s ballad “All My Life” is to the tone of the film.

Here’s the official synopsis:

"Following the death of her mother and a series of self-inflicted setbacks, young Ingrid Thorburn (Aubrey Plaza) escapes a humdrum existence by moving out West to befriend her Instagram obsession and LA socialite Taylor Sloane (Elizabeth Olsen). After a quick bond is forged between these unlikeliest of friends, the façade begins to crack in both women’s lives — with comically malicious results."

“Ingrid Goes West” opens on August 4th.

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August 19, 2019

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Fritz Lang’s ‘M’ Tops the Best Films of the 1930s, According to 100+ Critics

We’ve gone through the decades. The ‘40s ‘50s, ‘60s, ‘70s, ‘80s, ‘90s, ‘2000s, and ‘2010s. — all revisited, argued over. Now, here are the results for the best films of the 1930s.

Critics Poll: ‘Citizen Kane' Named Best Film of the 1940s

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Critics Poll: ‘Vertigo’ Named Best Film of the 1950s, Over 120 Participants

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