Ingrid Goes West

Ingrid, who has been in psychiatric treatment in Pennsylvania, moves to Los Angeles to follow the Instagram influencer Taylor Sloane. She engineers a meeting by stealing the woman's dog and returning it, and the friendship moves fast. As her fixation deepens, it turns into manipulation, blackmail and violence. It is Matt Spicer's first feature. Aubrey Plaza plays Ingrid and Elizabeth Olsen plays Taylor. Its sharpest idea is at the end: Ingrid's suicide attempt goes online and thousands of strangers take her side under the hashtag #iamingrid. The film does not punish the obsession, it gives it an audience. It won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award at Sundance 2017 and the Independent Spirit Award for Best First Feature. Rotten Tomatoes has 84 percent of 197 reviews positive. One critic called it a biting exposé on how we live now: sitting on our phones, rote scrolling through someone else's online life. Neon gave it a limited release in August 2017 and it took 3.3 million dollars domestically. Who it is for: viewers who like social media satire and uncomfortable character comedy. Who it is not for: anyone wanting to feel close to the protagonist. Ingrid is dangerous throughout and the film does not soften her.