Ingrid Goes West is an uncanny portrait of how social media allows users to curate their lives beyond recognition. Aubrey Plaza stars as Ingrid, a mentally unstable millennial whose mother recently died. After a stint in an institution, she finds she’s inherited enough money to move to the West Coast and remake herself in the image of Taylor Sloane (Elizabeth Olsen), an Instagram tastemaker who’s basically Coachella personified. Taylor’s got it all – the artsy husband, the easy income, the bungalow in Joshua Tree – and for a while, Ingrid is successful at infiltrating her world. That is, until Taylor’s troublemaking brother arrives on the scene and smells a rat.
Portraying the pull of social media can be tricky, but director Matt Spicer manages to convey just what it’s like to be 80-weeks deep in your crush’s selfies at 3 a.m. Plaza, who is also a producer on the film, is terrific, oscillating between greasy-haired depression and jittery please-like-me obsession. Although it never quite reaches Single White Female heights, Ingrid Goes West is an entertaining look at how social media allows us all to remake ourselves – at a cost.
– Jenni Miller, BUST Magazine
