Is social media 'bad' for you? Well, yes and no is the answer. But is social media 'bad' for you if you have a certain personality? To the point you obsess about something or someone? Or how about it pushes you so far off the edge that you loose all sight of who you are as you are so absorbed into being someone else? In these cases, you might want to step away from social media. Ingrid is one these people.
Ingrid Goes West is a about Ingrid, played to perfect boarderline
psychotic precision by Aubrey Plaza. Ingrid has an obsession with Instagram, her main supplier as well as other social media sites. Having just lost her mum who died of an illness, she is alone and seeks comfort in the pretty pictures and people posting on Instagram. When Ingrid discovers Taylor Sloane (Elizabeth Olsen), she moves to California with nothing but her inheritance her mother left her. She finds her way into Taylor's friendship zone, finding out that her persona isn't quite as authentic, but by now Ingrid is in too deep.
The comedy part of the film does an excellent job,
intentional
or not, or poking fun at those hipster Cali types and those who are
super superficial, pretending to be ahead of the curve when being nice
to people, fake smiling all the way through. The film explores these types of people and those who are just being themselves, such as Dan Pinto (O'Shea Jackson Jr) who really loves Batman Forever. He is actually someone Ingrid connects with without the use of her phone showing that she can live without her obsessions and there is hope for her yet.
At the Q&A after the film a couple of people asked about mental illness having an impact and director Matt Spicer pointed out that to say Ingrid was suffering with an illness and nothing else wasn't what the film was exploring. This is more about the effect social medis has in a negative and positive way (wait for the ending). Plaza full imerges herself into Ingrid's mind set and although she does some very questionable things, she isn't dangerous but can be pushed too far when cornered. All Ingrid wants is a friend she can admire and that appreciates her too. There is of course a back lash as Ingrid's real personality is defined about others and things and doesn't break through very often.