“Under the Influencer” — Film Review
The world of social media influencers is dark. It’s candy-coated, fast-paced editing that’s filled with eccentric personalities who hide reality. Tori (Taylor Joree Scorse) is a successful YouTuber who, at the “old” age of twenty-five, is losing popularity among her fans. Once on top of the world, Tori is now chasing trends in the hope that she’ll regain her place among social media royalty. The past ten years of Tori’s life have been defined by her YouTube presence, and now the decline in viewership feels like a personal attack. Her bubbly personality originally made her demographic full of young teens. They’ve grown, but Tori’s content has not. This leads her to a quarter-life identity crisis.
The world of YouTubers is ripe for storytelling. It seems as though we can’t go a week without news of at least one YouTube personality’s scandal. There are the more famous examples, like the Paul Brothers and Shane Dawson, but each subset of YouTube has its own microcosm of drama. Tori and her corner of the internet are no different. She’s placed in the hot seat by the new queen of YouTube, Becca (Ava Westcott), who asks Tori pointblank if she feels like she’s outstayed her welcome. It’s a direct blow to Tori’s psyche that rattles her to her core.
When it comes to social media, all of us are pretending to some extent. We’re the sole curators of our Instagram and Twitter accounts, so we have the ability to redefine ourselves in any way we see fit. There’s power in creating an online persona, but it’s not a full-time job for most of us. No one expects our digital contributions to always be entertaining, and it’s easier to separate the real world from the virtual one. Under the Influencer takes a stark look at the effort that goes into maintaining this facade, the pain that comes from losing oneself. Tori believes she exists as a commodity to be seen and consumed on the internet. When she finally hits her breaking point and removes the mask, she’s almost unrecognizable. It’s shocking to see how much the burden of expectations has weighed on Tori and just how far she has fallen down the rabbit hole of internet validation.
Under the Influencer is a tightly paced, introspective look on a time of transition that all of us go through. Most of us didn’t have to process our mid-twenties’ feelings of listless ennui with hundreds of thousands of anonymous voices chiming in on our missteps. Writer/director Alex Haughey has constructed a believable world of a stifling social media bubble where appearance isn’t everything. Scorse’s turn as Tori is frightening at times. It’s jarring to watch her go from emotionless to over-the-top exuberance, but somehow Scorse makes it look natural. It’s as though she’s been making this seamless transition all her life without recognizing the emotional heft of the quick change of emotion.
Haughey’s Under the Influencer is a charming indie film powered by Scorse’s earnest, impressive performance. Funny at some times, emotional at others, Under the Influencer will take audiences back to being twenty-five and allow them to feel all the loss, potential, and hope that come with that terrible, beautiful age.
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