Ingrid Goes West

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If you were anywhere near the internet last year, chances are you saw something that had to do with this movie. Or maybe not, I dunno, that was just my experience. Anyway, here we had a dark comedy, starring Aubrey Plaza, so I was pretty much on board 'cause I do enjoy me some Plaza every now and then. Though, I never really did get what the movie was about, entirely. I took it as being a sort of road trip movie, but it ended up being something completely different that I dunno if I liked or disliked by the end.

Ingrid (Aubrey Plaza) has recently moved to LA with some inheritance money. As it turns out, she develops a sick social media obsession over a popular girl named Taylor, and does what she can to force her way into her life, starting with kidnapping and then "rescuing" her dog, giving her an easy in. As the movie unfolds, they become very close friends, but that may or may not make matters in Ingrid's mind worse than they already are.

Ingrid also befriends her new landlord, Dan Pinto (O'Shea Jackson Jr.) who has a bit of an obsession with Batman, and is easily the most likable character in this movie. He likes her pretty well, but her obsession with Taylor seems to get very much in the way of something potentially good between the two.

This film is making two social commentaries at once, and though they are loud and clear, it's ending leaves you wondering how you feel about Ingrid. This is about our general obsessions these days with social media on the surface, but it goes deeper to suggest various consequences it can have on those who aren't entirely mentally stable. The beautiful part of the movie is that it's NOT about "cyber bullying" at all, but more about the "Instagram creep" from the creep's perspective. And in the end, you really play with the idea in your head that yeah, she's an unsettling character, but there's a part of you that feels bad for her all the same and you hope she ends up finding what she needs.

This is going to absolutely be one title where people are split right down the middle by the end. There's a part of it's final message that's extremely negative, and there's a part of you that might even hate Ingrid when it's all said and done. But again, there's just that little slice of conscience within you that might yet understand her character better than you did in the beginning. It could be seen as a character study on some more extreme mental health issues.

It's a dark comedy, but sadly doesn't exactly boast as many laughs as one might imagine from something like this. The trade off is that it does give you moments involving these characters where you second guess how much you like or dislike them. Again though, Dan is pretty much an all-around likable dude, and in some ways you feel the worst for him in the end 'cause he's just trying to do his thing and keeps falling into shitty situations. He's probably who you route for the most here (if there's any routing necessary, anyway).

There's a certain discomfort that comes from this movie, yes, but I believe that was mostly done on purpose in order for the viewer to examine both sides of the coin. Will you side with the psycho stalker girl, or will you side with the annoyingly over-popular Instagram girl? Can you side with either? Give it a shot and find out. You may be a little bit surprised with your feelings by the end.

3/5

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