I doubt I would be the first to say that we live in a world obsessed with social media and are sadly ruled by those who sit atop their influencer thrones. We are inundated with the bare bones of "entertainment" that they provide us, which is mostly them complaining about how much better off they are than us. As a group, they add nothing creative into the world, gifting us with vanity laden snapshots of fake wealth. It is like they are the perfect tourist on planet Earth. Going around in the lap of luxury, playing the newest games, sponsored by the greediest of companies, and stopping at all the hippest locations to grace us with pictures of themselves. Aren't we lucky to see all the wondrous places on Earth that are apparently made more perfect by having a half-naked self-absorbed simpleton standing in front of them? "Wow, look at this gorgeous beach!" Says the influencer. "I'd love to, but there's some tart with her ass hanging out, standing in front of it." Says I. Blech!
This rant has been brought to you by the movie Infamous.
Infamous is a Belle Thorne vehicle that seems to want to be a newer, hipper, emptier, and dumber version of Bonnie and Clyde. Bella plays a character who lives in poverty. But, it's the kind of poverty that affords you the ability to save thousands of dollars and have a brand new phone every month. One day she meets/ogles a guy working at a vehicle repair place. After a second visit, in which introduces herself by demanding his name and life story, the mechanic ignores the bratty girl and goes on with his job, the end. Wait, sorry, nope, that was reality. Instead, he is taken by Bella's characters sheer lack of wit and personality. It has nothing to do with her inability to wear anything that covers more than a quarter of her body. They sleep together hours later, which instantly makes them into a loving couple. So, when her mom's boyfriend steals her wad of cash, she runs away from home, down the street to her new boyfriend's place. Lucky for her, his Dad gets pushed down the stairs in self-defense, and the happy couple leaves town and begins a crime spree. A crime spree that has them filming themselves doing said crimes. They are barely masked, tattoos showing, and natter at the camera the whole time. After a montage of robberies, the couple gets ID'd by the police, and the whole thing falls apart.
It won't take a viewer long to question the intelligence of the characters in this movie. In fact, Infamous itself takes the time to point out how dumb they were during all of this. I am not sure if that was on purpose, or if the writers didn't know how mindless these characters would come off. It feels like satire at times but plunges into awful dialogue, terrible ideas, and love of the word followers. I think we are supposed to be watching a girl who is desperate for attention fall into the trap of the new age internet celebrity. She wants to be part of a place where being conventionally pretty and doing the bare minimum for likes translates to fame, with her obsession being her undoing. But instead, the main character comes off so vapid and uninteresting. You start to get the feeling she might be a bit undereducated, as she comes off as clueless and may not actually understand what is going on.
The film was shot well enough, and I didn't mind either of the main actor's performances, even though their characters left much to be desired. I just had a profound feeling of "who cares" at the end of the movie. This felt like something that I would flip through in my news feed and read the headline "Crime Spree in Florida ended after a couple posts videos of themselves to social media." I'd give it a chuckle and go back to taking my morning poop. This makes it a hard movie to recommend unless you're a huge fan of Bella Thorne. That, or you believe that social media influencers actually make quality content.