“Film is a machine for empathy,” Roger Ebert famously once said – and given how empathetic this scrappy thriller made me feel towards influencers, of all people, Influencer is a very well-oiled machine indeed. Director Kurtis David Harder takes a good elevator pitch – hot girl kills influencers and takes over their social media accounts – and turns it into something far smarter and entertaining than you might expect, with a small budget and a lead actor who, mark my words, will be in everything before long.
The film opens on Madison (Emily Tennant), an influencer who is in Thailand on a sort of working holiday – taking smiley selfies, posing with skincare products and barely leaving her hotel while espousing the values of travel to her thousands of followers. “I love soaking it all in and really experiencing Asia as it is meant to be experienced – away from my comfort zone,” her voiceover coos, while we watch her eat a burger alone at her hotel and mope over her manager-boyfriend, Ryan (Rory J Saper), who didn’t come with her. After posting a bubbly video on an idyllic beach, she stares blankly out at the beautiful horizon as her phone pings incessantly; this is a lonely, empty life she has chosen, and she seems to know it.
