The rise of social media over the past decade has led to more and more content weighing in on the strengths and pitfalls of online platforms. Films like Unfriended have interrogated the issue in the horror genre, while 2018’s Searching is arguably the finest use of social media on film yet, taking place almost entirely on screens. There’s a kernel of a good movie to be found in Infamous, which fancies itself as a lovers-on-the-run crime thriller with a healthy helping of online celebrity via Instagram. But any commentary on our relationship with social media that writer-director Joshua Caldwell is aiming for is obvious and clichéd, and it’s near-impossible to generate any empathy for the central duo.
The more prominent half of that twosome is Arielle (Bella Thorne), a small-town girl in a dead-end town who is desperate to rack up her social-media follower-count by seemingly any means necessary. It’s an obsession that’s misguided at best and exasperatingly stupid at its worst, and Arielle insisting on publicising her crimes even when it becomes clear that it makes her and partner-in-crime Dean (Jake Manley) easier to trace means her delusional pursuit of fame fits the latter far more often than the former. It would help if the larger thematic points Infamous is trying to make felt provocative and fresh, but, “Gotta love America!” in response to procuring a gun is as incisive as it gets.
The protagonists make the jump from wearisome to irredeemable in fairly quick fashion and never look back.
It’s all the more frustrating for the fact that Thorne is perfectly cast. Having proved adept at navigating social media in her own life — in 2018 she claimed she is paid $65,000 for a single Instagram post — she convinces throughout as a teen who is never less than 100 per cent sure that Hollywood will be her salvation (a strong idea that the screenplay never fully gets to grips with). Infamous’ best moments come when it pairs Thorne’s vivaciousness with action scenes that hint at the directorial flair that Caldwell is capable of, like a weed-dispensary robbery that’s filmed in one continuous take.
The issue lies more with the actions Arielle and Dean are committed to carrying out. Being likeable is not a prerequisite for any character, but Caldwell’s protagonists make the jump from wearisome to irredeemable in fairly quick fashion and never look back. Compound that with commentary that never goes beyond surface-deep, and it’s clear that the themes at play here have been examined far better elsewhere. On that note, watch the underrated Ingrid Goes West instead.