Aubrey Plaza continues her summer of weirdness, following up July’s improvised convent romp The Little Hours with the very black comedy Ingrid Goes West. Plaza’s Ingrid is depicted as insane from the outset—the opening scene sees her pepper-spraying a bride after not being invited to the wedding and we soon find out they barely knew each other—and though it suggests other causes like loneliness and family trauma, the movie puts her unhingedness at the feet of one monster: Instagram. When she becomes obsessed with LA style blogger Taylor Sloane (Elizabeth Olsen), per the title she moves west and worms her way into Taylor’s influencer life. When Taylor’s brother Nicky (Billy Magnussen) shows up, despite his monumental toolbagginess, he is correctly, instantly suspicious, and her whole plot begins to unravel and so does she. Plaza abandons her trademark deadpan to offer up a scarily out-of-control woman and it’s electrifying to watch. Olsen is reliably good but has much less to do as a fake, self-curated robot. O’Shea Jackson Jr. is funny and sexy as Ingrid’s landlord/boyfriend/most victimized. Matt Spicer’s directorial debut feels light due to its California setting, but it’s incredibly bleak, underlining what you realize you already know: Social media is a crazymaking lie.
This article appears in Aug 17-23, 2017.