Matt Spicer’s Ingrid Goes West (2017) is a dark comedy/pseudo-horror story for the millennial set (including myself, a card carrying #mil). Okay, maybe horror is stretching but it follows the story of Aubrey Plaza’s Ingrid, an unstable young women whose obsession with social media leads her to Los Angeles to insert herself into the life of her favorite Instagram star, Taylor Sloane (a pitch perfect Elizabeth Olsen). The stalking and eerily copycat behavior is a sort of horror in itself- especially for a generation of people who put themselves out there on the internet- but Ingrid’s realization that the object of her obsession/ultimate #goals is, stereotypically, not as perfect as she seems is kind of a horror, too. O’Shea Jackson Jr., Wyatt Russell, and Billy Magnussen round out the rest of the cast. All of these are good and funny people!!
Is it fun?
Obviously this is fun. There’s deserts and cool clothes and dark humor and crazy people, which are all things I love in a movie. Sometimes, Aubrey Plaza’s performance felt a little flat but it’s more that she’s not your girl for slapstick than a reflection of her talent. That type of humor was used sparingly so it was ultimately fine. I forgot to keep notes while watching so tbh, I forgot a lot of what I was going to say.* But I’ll tell you what, O’Shea Jackson Jr. absolutely stole the show! I am in love with him now and kind of wish there was a spin off or just an accompanying film called Dan Was Already West. I mean everyone was great but he’s the only one I came away with a crush on.
*I know! I write notes for this blog! I wouldn’t believe it either, dear reader.
Is It Fun? 