BIFF23 REVIEW: Under the Influencer [2023]

Rating: NR | Runtime: 103 minutes
Release Date: December 12th, 2023 (USA)
Studio: Vision Films
Director(s): Alex Haughey
Writer(s): Alex Haughey

I tried to put a little bit more of myself back in this one.

After ten years of making a name for herself as a YouTube influencer, Tori (Taylor Joree Scorse) is starting to realize this latest dip in engagement might be more than the result of a refreshed algorithm. She’s older now and yet her audience is still the same age. Without legacy engagement and, worse, with backlash from fans who evolved without her, she’s mostly spinning her wheels while jumping on the latest trends regardless of her own interest in them. The system dictates her actions.

Alex Haughey’s Under the Influencer touches on some interesting concepts where identity is concerned by forcing its lead character to confront the reality that she doesn’t know who she is anymore. Spending that much time as a persona takes its toll, especially when you must be “on” 24/7 so as not to risk attracting trolls. Now should be the moment to take a big swing and yet Tori is terrified at the prospect. She cannot acknowledge that the gains of becoming a real person again are worth more than preserving the popularity that remains.

We get a bit of everything where this world is concerned. Tori is judged on the street as not being a serious person due to the façade. Former colleagues exploit her current predicament for personal engagement. Celebrity has isolated her from understanding the truth about her own talent. And it all moves towards an inevitable on-screen maelstrom of emotion that proves an earlier Tarot card reading’s ambiguous response to the “Death” card correct. Because every end is a beginning. And honesty is much more rewarding than parasocial relationships.

The third act is a super earnest fantasy that ensures the movie’s messaging is blatantly expressed for those who weren’t paying attention, but it’s also quite charming and hopeful in its homage of Before Sunset sentimentality. And despite initially feeling out-of-place, that shift is kind of the point. We’re exiting the simulacrum alongside Tori. We’re watching her step into an unknown chapter of existence where she can stop hiding from herself. It’s a wholesome and poignant realization performed well by Scorse to remind us that our biggest obstacle in life is too often ourselves.