LIKE ME is an impressive debut from first-time writer/director Robert Mockler. The movie was a difficult one for me to review as I’m uncertain if I actually enjoyed it or not. I am okay with something that makes me think, but I don’t like the idea of overthinking a simple idea. Although it’s not perfect, the film has strong art-house skills and abstract ideas. LIKE ME is an odd and misdirected road trip, but it is mostly worth your time.
Even before the opening credits, the blue neon of Glass Eye Pix’s logo appears. We are usually excited about this. For some years now this indie production house has been making some of the most weird and wonderful movies in the genre. You should check them out they have probably produced something you know or have seen. The head of Glass Eye Pix is Larry Fessenden, whom any good genre fan could identify with little effort. That’s 96 acting credits for you, and he is much more important here than in his many other films where he just makes brief appearances. Of course, this is an advantage to all concerned parties involved
Kiya (Addison Timlin) is a tween obsessed with social media and whose mission is to gain internet stardom as said by LIKE ME. I immediately recognized Timlin from her role on the Showtime series CALIFORNICATION. We’ll just say that’s where the comparison ends. The movie opens in a small convenience store when Kiya enters it wearing an eerie mask on her face and carrying a camera phone. Freddie (Jeremy Gardner) who is at the counter is taken aback but he does not seem frightened or bothered by this short feminine weirdo. He tries talking to her, but she only stares at him in silence; something which really infuriates him even more and causes him to act out for the camera. This is exactly what Kiya wants to get “likes”. There’s an escalation of things as he loses his temper while Kiya takes out a gun from her hoodie. As Freddie pleads for his life, urine begins running down his legs and this greatly amuses Kiya’s crazed fans. She disappears into the night while earning top ratings for herself. A monster has been created!
This film inter-stitches the viewer’s reaction, while also including montages of clips as people discuss her videos. The intention is for it to be important to the story, but honestly, this part felt like the weakest part of the movie and I’ll talk about that later. Kiya is particularly interested in one person’s reaction. Another poster, Burt (Ian Nelson), is not happy about what she does and he will go on a long rant explaining how repulsive they are. Again, although I understand that this movie aims at making some political commentary on so-called social media “celebrities”, it came across as forced and fake. This is when the film becomes weak, socially commenting through the media; hence its heavy reliance on that storyline too.
Then, she checks in at a weird hotel owned by a strange man named Marshall (Fessenden). But Marshall is also a pervert. The fun thing about this place is that every room is decorated differently and it’s all delightfully bizarre. For example, Kiya’s room looks like the walls are painted with blood dripping down from the ceiling. Kiya seduces him to follow her up in her room and there he finds himself faced by Kiya who is dressed in a hammock wearing only undies and a gas mask! It is crazy film stuff the visuals are amazing. This reminded me of the fantasy parts from an excellent horror/comedy film EXCISION. At some point, after trapping Marshall inside, Kiya starts a road trip that ends up being psychotic while increasing violence aiming at gaining more followers on social media.
The film has been said earlier that, it is misguided, however, it does have some moments of pure genius. For instance, Kiya seems to be delving into these fantasy montages which resemble the trippy, psychedelic fugue states you’ll see in a trailer. This is actually when the film works best showing seemingly random neon fused madness. The cinematography and set design are fantastic. What I find disturbing about this movie though is that it seems to have a morbid obsession for mastication. Not masturbation (which may have been preferable), but rather mastication, providing the viewer with intense close-ups of people chewing. I don’t know exactly what this was supposed to mean, but it was god-awful offensive. Kiya’s gross eating habits come out clearly through force-feeding Marshall who she has tied up at some point, and by having an unkempt man eat something nasty in one of the sleaziest diner scenes in recent times. Almost as if they are both attempting to eat their food in the most primitive way imaginable sound nor any detail of close-up chewing.
The film speaks directly to the ongoing trend of social media, in films like FRIEND REQUEST (2017), UNFRIENDED (2014), and TRAGEDY GIRLS (2017). I wouldn’t say that I’m happy with this development because I don’t like using social media platforms and all those movies seem more oriented towards younger people. But at least ‘Tragedy Girls’ stayed funny whereas others didn’t. All these films are about internet peril but this one had it forced upon it full. Paradoxically, despite its title being Like Me, which by itself is a pointer to the fact that this film would revolve around social media more than anything else; It didn’t need that, and when “reactions” started populating my TV screen, My God! The content of these films is almost similar to found footage as they present what you see as reality. In some cases, you may see things from the perspective of victims or people actually committing crimes. This kind of approach was always good for me as long as we were talking about (good) found footage movies; however, it seems that the new craze has gone even further down the ladder of laziness. If you hate found footage then too bad.
Some things weren’t clear to me like Kiya’s obsession with Burt, scenes showing chewing which took forever, and why social media needed to be involved in any way in telling this story.
On the other hand, the picture is pleasing to look at and surely must be of interest to an audience starved for this kind of “horror”. It’s just not my thing. I can only hope that social media thrillers are not finished yet but never again should it be treated as a joke.
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