The dark comedy “Ingrid Goes West” — a sort of Instagram-age variant on “Single White Female” — doesn’t have much to say, but it has some fun saying it. Ingrid (an intense Aubrey Plaza), a troubled young woman with a history of social-media stalking, moves to Los Angeles to follow Taylor (Elizabeth Olsen), whose perfectly curated life seems to be a model for all that Ingrid’s lacks. (Taylor is a sunny, crackle-voiced blonde who’s always going on about being #blessed.) Things, I need not say, do not go well.
Director Matt Spicer, who wrote the Sundance award-winning screenplay with David Branson Smith, is dealing with some fairly obvious themes; i.e. everything on social media isn’t what it seems; living your life online isn’t necessarily a good idea. But he finds much wit in the characters, and in the wicked fun the actors are having.
Olsen finds just the right dippy spin for Taylor’s plan to open a boutique hotel “that’s my Instagram, but real life.” O’Shea Jackson Jr., as Ingrid’s Batman-obsessed landlord/semi-boyfriend, is earnestly hilarious (“Tell me ‘Gotham needs you!’” he whispers during sex), and the award for Best Performance in a Two-Line Cameo goes to the waiter at Grateful Kitchen who cheerfully asks Ingrid, “How can I nourish you today?”
You won’t remember “Ingrid Goes West” for long after it’s over, but as summer diversions go, you could do much worse.
MOVIE REVIEW
“Ingrid Goes West”
Grade: B
Starring Aubrey Plaza and Elizabeth Olsen. Directed by Matt Spicer.
Rated R for language throughout, drug use, some sexual content and disturbing behavior. Check listings for theaters. 1 hour, 37 minutes.
Bottom line: It won’t be that memorable, but it could be worse
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