Spree (2020)

Directed by: Eugene Kotlyarenko | 93 minutes | comedy, crime | Actors: Joe Keery, Sasheer Zamata, David Arquette, Kyle Mooney, Mischa Barton, Frankie Grande, Lala Kent, Joshua Ovalle, Sunny Kim, John DeLuca, Linas Phillips, Jessalyn Gilsig, Sean Avery, Victor Winters-Junco, Sara Lassner

With ‘Spree’, director Eugene Kotlyarenko brings a kind of horror/social satire about the power of social media. What people do to get as many followers as possible on the internet, you may have heard of those damned vloggers and influencers. Or as the latter are sometimes called: ‘nonsense influencers’.

Twenty-something Kurt Kunkle (Joe Keery from “Stranger Things”) is also a hobby vlogger, but his attempts to go viral on the Internet with his “Kurt’s World” vlogs all fail miserably. He just doesn’t have a nice or the right angle, the originality, in short: Kurt is actually a completely anonymous vlogger. With the help of mega-influencer Bobby (which Kurt used to babysit…), known online as BobbyBaseCamp, Kurt decides to take a completely different approach.

Under the hashtag TheLesson, he gives his viewers tips on how to grow big on social media. He does this on his job, as the driver of a Spree rideshare car, a kind of Uber. But this time he goes beyond every conceivable limit to finally be noticed. Almost everyone who gets in the car with him can no longer tell. From a racist to an arrogant real estate agent and from a macho to partying empty heads. Everything can be seen in live stream on multiple cameras. Until he meets his match, because when stand-up comedian Jessie Adams (Sasheer Zamata from “Saturday Night Live”) gets in the car – with her own viral agenda – he is immeasurably fascinated. Why does she have those millions of followers and he doesn’t?

How far do you go for the kick of the click, the hype of the like? Isn’t the online world almost overpowering us these days? Are we still living our own life? Who can say with hand on heart that they are not influenced by anyone online? ‘Spree’ will therefore also look recognizable to the youngest generation.

The two protagonists, Joe Keery and Sasheer Zanata, play their roles with gusto. Unfortunately, the supporting roles are not too high. David Arquette shows up as Joe’s father and his contribution is weak to say the least. Furthermore, the image is almost constantly bombarded with live reactions from the online viewers and split screens from the protagonists. In the beginning this is a nice gimmick, but eventually it gets boring because sometimes you literally don’t know where to look.

Everyone who shows up in the film is busy in his or her own way, profiling himself via social media with selfies and ‘lively shot videos’. ‘Spree’ shows what a socially isolated life can do to someone, a somewhat pathetic young man who – coming from a broken home – just wants to be noticed. The film does contain some nice sidetracks (Kurt searching the internet for ‘how to make a corpse disappear’), as well as comments on discrimination and shows how the followers switch from disbelief to hero worship. ‘Spree’ shows that normal life is increasingly being swallowed up by the internet. A sad statement…