*Premise spoilers*
This is a new-new Joel Fry movie! Okay, so I’m not posting this until I’ve gotten through White Van Man, but I wrote it opening weekend. In between frequently checking my local theater to see if/when it was going to be coming, I was surprised to see a gifset of Fry’s character pop up on my Tumblr—with images beyond what was shown of him in the trailer. That’s how I learned the movie was released digitally at the same time. While I hoped I’d get to see him on the big screen here, there was no telling if that was going to happen, so I decided to opt for the immediately available option.
As an online content moderator, Daisy and her coworkers spend their days watching the absolute worst the internet has to offer: every shift is a litany of violence, graphic sexual content, hate speech, and more. Daisy does her best to watch each ticketed video, approve or delete, and move on, but there’s an intensely violent porn video she can’t get out of her mind. Despite her boss’s insistence that it’s simply staged fetish content, Daisy is convinced that it’s real. Deleting the video isn’t enough for her, and she becomes obsessed with finding the perpetrators.
First of all, I like the choices the film makes with how it depicts the videos Daisy and the other moderators are watching. For the most part, we’re not shown the disturbing content onscreen. Instead, we often see text of the video’s title or the reason it was flagged. We sometimes hear unsettling audio or the characters’ descriptions of what they had to watch. At pivotal moments, we see a hint of the screen reflected in a closeup shot of the moderator’s eye as they view it. I thought it was an effective way to deal with the issue—it avoids having to show so much graphic content in the film, and to an extent, it further emphasizes Daisy’s point that “we watch this shit so no one else has to.” We the viewers literally don’t have to watch this shit. We instead watch the characters’ faces as they watch it for us.
This film isn’t quite what I thought it was going to be, mostly in a good way. The trailer puts a lot of focus on Daisy’s search for the guy who made the video, and the overarching vibe I got was mystery/suspense. But while Daisy’s search is very much an important part of her story, the focus is more on what it says about her. Why is she so determined to find this man? What is she willing to do to achieve that (and how dangerous will it be?) If she does find him, what will she do next? At its core, I’d say this is more of a character story than a mystery, which I like.
It definitely has some unevenness. In particular, some of the themes are too heavy-handed—I had a “yeah, yeah, we get it,” reaction more than once. The plot also feels kind of slow at times. On the whole, though, I found it interesting and compelling. I’m really intrigued by these characters and how their horrifying job infects their daily lives.
Lili Reinhart came up in the Riverdale school of acting, so she’s been through her hard knocks. Her Daisy can be frustrating to watch, but intentionally so. Like a lot of her fellow moderators, she self-medicates to distance herself from the job, which sometimes leaves her feeling blank and only half-present. And her ill-advised decisions can certainly leave you yelling at the screen for her to stop being so reckless. But she’s a very interesting character too, a young person who’s sunk into this morass and gotten stuck there. Reinhart’s performance is very good, and in the scenes where Daisy is fully present, not dulled to her surroundings, Reinhart brings the emotion so effectively.
While Daisy is clearly the protagonist, the other moderators don’t just exist in relation to her. Their thoughts and reactions are important to the film too, and we get multiple scenes centering on one of the ensemble. This is another aspect of the movie that I appreciate—plus, it means more for Joel Fry than I was necessarily expecting! It’s neat to see Daniela Melchior (Ratcatcher 2 from The Suicide Squad!) as Daisy’s friend/coworker Ava, although she unfortunately has one of the more thankless roles in the film. For the most part, Ava is positioned as a supportive/funny bestie, as well as an example of someone who’s grown more jaded to their work. I’m not familiar with Jeremy Ang Jones, but he does a great job as Paul, a new employee who’s quickly thrown into the deep end. Christiane Paul is effective as Joy, the by-the-book boss, and I like seeing Joplin Sibtain (Brasso!!!) pop up in a small role.
Joel Fry plays Bob, another of the moderators. Something of a loose cannon, we’re introduced to Bob when he throws his headphones at his monitor screen and announces his intention to burn the company to the ground: “All I need is kerosene, a box of matches, and a can-do attitude!” Daisy quickly reassures the bewildered Paul that this kind of stuff is normal for Bob, explaining, “It’s how he copes.” His other coping methods include vodka, having destructive fun with company supplies, and maintaining the betting pool for the next person to lose it (faint, throw up, have a meltdown in the “Tranquility Room,” etc.)
You might consider Bob comic relief, but I think “tension relief” might be the more accurate term. To be sure, some of his antics are funny. As tension builds in the story (and the characters’ work lives,) a bizarre outburst from Bob can help to dissipate that. Really, though, that’s what he’s trying to do in his own life. In a really great scene, Bob is brought in to talk to the on-site counselor about finding healthier outlets for his “frustrations.” After the counselor suggests coloring books or nine-minute cooldowns in the Tranquility Room, Bob can’t hide his amusement at this man’s sheer audacity. He lays out a fraction of the onslaught of traumatic shit he’s had to watch just that day, then flatly states, “You know, the people out there who aren’t yelling, the ones who’re just taking it, that’s who you need to worry about.”
This is where Fry’s honesty as an actor really comes through. I’ve talked about this quality before—he never dampens the serious emotions of his more comedic characters by going too broad. The emotions always feel honest, and he can slip really nimbly between comedy and drama. Here, we get plenty of dark humor from Bob, like when Joy gets exasperated by his questions during a staff meeting (he sincerely wants to know if the phrase “cheese-eating moose-fucker” violates their content policy.) However, these moments are juxtaposed with more earnest scenes, like the answer he gives when the main moderators are sharing the stories of their personal worst videos.
Accent Watch
As soon as I realized Fry was going to be in a movie set in the U.S., I was sooooo curious as to whether he’d be doing an American accent. He only says about two words in the trailer, so that was inconclusive, but let me tell you—he most certainly does, a very generalized one. It’s a bit Uncanny Valley throughout. While I’ve heard far worse fake American accents before, it always feels slightly off. Oh, and I know I caught at least one “idear” in there!
Recommend?
In General – I think I would, if you’re okay with the dark subject matter and a rather slower pace. This is an intriguing film about a fascinating setting.
Joel Fry - Yep! Accent shakiness aside, this is another good role for Fry. Bob is interesting to watch every time he’s onscreen.
Warnings
Strong thematic elements (including references to suicide,) violence (including references to sexual violence against both adults and children,) sexual content, language, drinking/drug use, and gross-out content.
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