INGRID GOES WEST
Director: Matt Spicer
Stars: Aubrey Plaza, Elizabeth Olsen, O’Shea Jackson jun, Wyatt Russel, Billy Magnussen
Rating: (R16)
★★ (out of five)
The other problem is that it almost immediately shows us how far stalker Ingrid (Aubrey Plaza) will go for her delusional fantasies, so we never get to have that moment when the other shoe drops and we realise this girl is madder than a sackful of snakes.
Instead, Ingrid goes ballistic, is dragged off for some compulsory psychotherapy, is pronounced better and immediately returns to her crazy ways on a new happy, shiny person whose twitter account she stumbles upon.
Taylor Sloane (Elizabeth Olsen) keeps sharing slices of her lovely, lovely life and Ingrid is too much of a country hick to realise Taylor is just pitching products, using her husband, Ezra (Wyatt Russel), and dog as props for the merchandise. Once upon a time, Taylor was a rube from the midwest like Ingrid, but she moved to Los Angeles and transformed herself into an It Girl for modern times.
So Ingrid moves to Los Angeles to be closer to Taylor. Can she be an It Girl too? Taylor is easy to find as she keeps posting about all the great places where she spends her money.
The problem is, even as we squirm through Ingrid’s clumsy efforts to get close to Taylor, we know it is only a matter of time before she goes full mad-dog stalker. If you watch reality TV for those moments when someone throws a table, then Ingrid Goes West may be your perfect movie, but for the rest of us it’s just depressing.
- Christine Powley
