Infamous

Gun Crazy. Breathless. Bonnie & Clyde. The Getaway. Badlands. The Sugarland Express. Wild At Heart. True Romance. Natural Born Killers. Love And A .45. Sightseers. Queen & Slim. Lovers on the run movies have been a cinematic staple for decades. The films listed above are a mere tip of the iceberg. They've always been controversial, courting claims of glamorisation of violence and crime. That's one claim this film can't deny. Because it's one of it's main points.

Social media, love it or hate it, one thing it's done is turn us into attention seeking eejits. We post stuff hoping people will look at it so we can get that sweet sweet dopamine hit from likes and retweets. Arielle (Bella Thorne), a teen from Florida lives her life by that credo. She's an asshole, a bully, she takes what she wants and doesn't care about how it affects others. She just wants to get out of her Florida town and be famous. When she hooks up with Dean (Jake Manley) and the two accidentally kill his father she gets her chance. Heading towards California they go on a crime spree that's all filmed and posted online. She gets her fame wish soon enough but that desensitized internet audience soon tires of their robberies and demands something more extreme. Something she's more than willing to give.

This could have been good. It's a well shot movie that makes knowing visual nods to Terrence Malick and Arthur Penn's previous masterpieces and it takes a scenario that I'm amazed hasn't happened yet and uses it to shine a light on our glorification of morons and our dependence on that little handheld rectangle that's taken over our lives. Sadly it does it in such a badly acted fashion that it's hard to take any of it seriously. The main duo of Bella Thorne and Jake Manley are bad. Really bad. They can't even swear convincingly. His first appearance is a 3rd rate Martin Sheen rip off and she'll make you wish for the likes of Sissy Spacek everytime she squawks. He underplays his part to the point where you could nearly lift him out of the film and nothing would change and she....well...if the film hadn't started at the ending you'd be able to spend your time wondering when she's get shot. They're awful, they're the reason you haven't heard of this film and probably never will.

And it's annoying because there's salient points here about the cheapness of modern day fame. How instant access to everything deadens us to the point that we're only happy when we're thrilled by something. How we're willing to make heroes of anyone for doing anything. It might seem far fetched but look how far we've fallen in the last few years. Celebs are celebs for no reason. People get famous and become millionaires because they post artfully composed pictures on instagram. The film nails that point but at the same time comes too close to glamorising that lifestyle. The violence is shown in slo-mo and it's exciting and aesthetically pleasing especially at the climax. It needed to be blunt and ugly as a counterpoint to Arielle's increasing fame and it all makes for a confusing message and then the film's final shot comes along and muddies the water even more. Is the film judging us or her? It's too little too late.

Infamous is streaming online now. It's really not worth your time. Watch Ingrid Goes West instead if you want a good film about the toxic influence of social media.