It’s annoying how often people talk about the ways that social media has completely changed our lives. But…it’s still true. For good and ill, websites and apps that connect people with others through their words, photos, and more have made a tremendous impact that is very hard to overestimate. News cycles move faster because of social media, political decisions are made based on to it, friendships and romances are started, destroyed, and rekindled through it, and mental health issues are created and helped and worsened through it.
Information that wouldn’t otherwise be available to most people can now travel the globe in seconds—allowing folks to see protests against governments that would otherwise ban any coverage of it. Of course, just as quickly as these stories reach others, disinformation can spread even faster. Whole fads and careers are seemingly born and enjoyed and overused and die in the matter of a few clicks thanks to social media. It’s also dramatically altered art—not just with social media’s abilities for dissemination, appropriation, theft, education, exposure, but also how books and television shows and films address or incorporate it into their narratives.
There are brilliant movies that figure out the perfect way to utilize social media, both in terms of story and visuals, like EIGHTH GRADE, TRAGEDY GIRLS, and SORRY TO BOTHER YOU. And there are haranguing diatribes made by out-of-touch folks that decry the youths and their addictions to screens or don’t really get how a tweet works but the plot of their film is hung upon the platform. Or filmmakers have to explain why it’s not a part of their story (set in the past, bad reception, broken phones, and more and more) or else risk the ire of millions of Multiplex Miss Marples who have keenly observed a plot hole in their cinematic experience.
Social media is the best of times and it is the worst of times. So it’s pretty apt that two shorts (originally slated to screen during SXSW 2020) approach it—specifically in terms of apps based around photos, like Instagram—from very different directions and with wildly divergent tones. Though it’s probably fair to say that SELFIE and BASIC share the same overall distaste for the toxicity possible in them, one will leave you screaming and the other laughing.
SELFIE, directed by John Poliquin from a script by Poliquin and Colin Minihan, concerns teenager Sarah (Peyton Kennedy) who is tired of the fake persona she has crafted on the “Selfie” app through the use of filters, photoshopping, emojis, and the proper hashtags. This digital replicant is removed from who she really is and how she really looks. And so, even though her boyfriend Derek (Max Pregoni) warns her she’ll miss all those sweet followers, she removes Selfie from her phone and life. Or so she thinks as she is soon plagued by ominous messages, bizarre photos, and eventually a gruesome doppelgänger haunting her house. It would seem that doing it for the ‘gram comes at a cost.
SELFIE is a mixed bag but still a mostly entertaining short film. Poliquin does a great job of quickly disseminating information, building up tension, and then deploying truly frightening sequences and imagery that are very well executed. Kennedy doesn’t share scenes with many other actors and does a great job carrying the movie through projecting a sense of reality, hurt, confusion, and terror. But there is a departure from reality in some elements of SELFIE—why does the preppie teenager girl have a creepy giallo-hued green nightlight? I know it’s to be moody in the film, but it still seems odd!
SELFIE‘s main flaw is that it feels like an older man trying to speak for young woman which is both admirable and awkward. Admirable in the sense that Poliquin, Minihan, and company are addressing an issue facing a group of people that is not THEM, and it is a known thing that photo sharing social media platforms can cause all manner of body image issues, especially amongst younger women. But it’s awkward because it just seems very “cool teacher that turns the chair around to really rap about what’s goin’ on in these kids’ lives.” There’s a lack of authenticity to some of it that’s hard to pinpoint but still readily apparent. Still, SELFIE is a brief and well-made movie that gets in and out while displaying creativity and a genuine sense of effective filmmaking. This would go well in a horror anthology or just a bit of creepiness to send to your friends to freak them out.
BASIC also focuses on an Instagram-like app (well, literally Instagram, in this case), but approaches it not as the creator of the photos but from the perspective of the audience of these images. The short is incredibly brief and actually has two fun twists baked into its narrative, so it’s best not to go into details. Suffice to say, Kailynn (Georgia Mischak) loves taking photos for Instagram, sometimes involving a boyfriend (Nelson Franklin), and this may or may not go over very well with another party (writer/director Chelsea Devantez).
The reason BASIC works so well is that it not only has those clever twists which adds to the absurdity in unexpected ways, but there are a bunch of what the sports fans would call “intangibles.” It’s hard to explicitly articulate them, but it’s these little specific moves—be it the phrasing of an emotion, delivery of a line, timing of responses, or elements in the photos that we all have seen and know and hate—that make it such an effective source of comedy.
It’s hard to understand why, but often in writing (or any creative endeavor) it seems that the more specific artists get, the more universal it becomes; I am not like Devantez’s character, but certain thoughts and opinions she shares have flitted through my head while scrolling through the feed. BASIC is very much akin to the opening of 1932’s TROUBLE IN PARADISE wherein it’s expectation, then reversal, then reversal again, with a great sprinkling of crackerjack dialogue throughout. Yes, I’m comparing a less-than-three-minute long Instagram short with one of Ernst Lubitsch’s greatest films (and one of my favorite movies of all time); deal with it, America!
BASIC is not for everyone, but what comedy is? Devantez and crew crafted an all killer, no filler short with a deft understanding of expectations and human behavior that will certainly induce a few laughs in most people. And you can all view it on YouTube (embedded below). We may not know what, if anything, will come after social media—but SELFIE and BASIC show that we all recognize it’s a source of great pleasure and pain.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wPfCxSe3qZU
Tags: Caroline Simone O'Brien, Chelsea Devantez, Colin Minihan, comedy, Georgia Mischak, Horror, Instagram, John Poliquin, Max Pregoni, Nelson Franklin, Peyton Kennedy, short films, Social Media, SXSW 2020
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