Stalking celebrities used to be an art form. Back in the pre-Internet days, it took more than someone’s Instagram handle for an obsessive fan to latch themselves onto their favorite famous person parasocially; to get in close, you actually had to get in CLOSE. But in an era where every person worth the glam (and more than a fair few who aren’t) seems to spotlight every granular detail of their personal lives for the world to see, it doesn’t take much for anyone to live vicariously through a popstar’s world tour or an actor’s day on set.
Naturally, being easier doesn’t mean being safer. While most internet sleuthing manifests in physically benign (if entirely mentally unhealthy) displays of comment section Standom, those same sleuths willing to go the extra mile can be just as nefarious, and outright dangerous, as ever. As “Lurker” comes to show, in an age where each moment of our lives seems mass-projected out of every other person’s pockets, it’s now simpler than at any other time in history to weasel one’s way into the inner sanctum of another, demolishing their carefully crafted temple from the inside.
Alex Russell may be tackling this notion almost a decade after Matt Spicer gave us the definitive stalker story of our generation in the Aubrey Plaza starrer “Ingrid Goes West,” but in an intervening period where Spicer’s warning call has fallen on deaf ears, perhaps another reminder may be warranted of the perils of social projection at a time when everyone is selling the version of themselves they think will get furthest ahead. “Lurker” by no means reinvents the message, but Russell still makes the worthwhile case that that message should continue to flash in the corner of every screen like a cancer warning on a carton of cigarettes.
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Though lacking in Plaza’s unmistakable “I’d date her even though she’ll probably slash my tires” energy, French-Canadian actor Théodore Pellerin proves a worthy substitute for Russell’s gender-swapped story of toxic celebrity proximity. The beady-eyed actor plays Matthew, an LA-based clothing store employee who, in the film’s opening scene, seizes upon a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.
One day, his trendy shop is visited by none other than rising musician Oliver (Archie Madekwe, shifting from the skeptical friend of the stalked subject in “Saltburn” to the target himself), and Matthew instantly ingratiates himself with the singer by showing off a supposedly blasé perception of his fame in favor of his apparent musical sincerity.
Whether or not Matthew actually even cares for Oliver’s music or is equipped with this attractive demeanor simply for the fame he claims to disregard is never made quite clear, which ultimately works to the film’s benefit when he finds himself almost instantly initiated into Oliver’s core group of friends and collaborators. Matthew is a videographer, which gives him an in as the proposed documentarian who will capture his new best mate’s rise and craft his music videos, but it doesn’t take long for this veneer of “art over status” to melt away as soon as anyone else saunters in to steal Matt’s thunder.
Those few who saw Sophie Dupuis’s slight but promising Quebecois mob flick “Family First” are already aware of Pellerin’s underlying talent for unleashing an overflow of unhinged behavior, but “Lurker” asks of him a more subdued energy to sell the parasitic nature of his unsuspecting invasion of this space. At times, it may prove somewhat unbelievable that a guy serving Matthieu Amalric glares at all times would be anything but a red flag for this crew. However, what the actor lacks in selling the constant credibility of this endeavor, he more than makes up for in selling the credibility of his disturbed motivations.
It isn’t until the final 25 minutes of the film that Russell begins to add a new dimension to the rote celebrity stalking formula, when he allows Pellerin to fully embody what makes him—and his chillingly faux-innocent laugh—so transfixing despite the hollow sincerity of Oliver’s antics (intended or otherwise) surrounding his own facade. It’s here that “Lurker,” in a story where pretenses are everybody’s realities, penetrates as fully as it can the truth behind Matthew’s bitter worldview and the capabilities he possesses to align it with his own path.
What films like “Lurker” aim to do, it would seem, is remind viewers that celebrities—ever the focus of orchestrated events and artificial content—are people just like us. What films like “Lurker” manage to do, on the other hand, is show how the people gazing through their windows are people just like us, too. And that, in the end, might just be what’s most persistently unsettling about Alex Russell’s periodically routine view of social media culture.
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