Mainstream is a decent shell of an idea contained in a shitty product, like the viral videos that somehow attract people in this terrible movie. The film is a satire on our social media-addled zeitgeist, exposing the hypocrisy in counterculture movements that feed into capitalist systems and narcissistic traits, but it's poorly conceived and doesn't really have anything to say. And a film tackling this material has
so much to say. The biggest issue happens late in the game
where Garfield is pathologized by the film as responsible for someone else's suicide. I mean, he totally plays a part, but it's such an undeserved stretch to pin the blame solely on him, especially when detached projected judgments are exactly what the film seems to be skewering in our society. To go further and relieve Hawke and others, who looked the other way and reinforced the behavior, of culpability by having them distance themselves from him and join the crowd after being a part of the problematic system... well what does that position say about the relativist nature of responsibility, totally unaware that it's diffusing it for itself and its characters? Hmmm sounds just like the narcissistic rationalizations of your degenerate antagonist! And then Coppola has the nerve to indict us all before cutting to black as the audience cheers for Garfield's freakout confession of 'authenticity'. Finger-wagging self-reflexive garbage.
So yeah, this Coppola doesn't got talent (though Jason Schwartzman is kinda funny in his bit part, doing a favor for his cousin's daughter). The film even engages in a middle schooler's idea of a witty screenplay by aping other works to self-deprecatingly declare itself unoriginal too, from the obvious
Network in structure to parroting a famous
Midnight Cowboy scene with a nudging wink. The one takeaway is that Maya Hawke is worth keeping an eye on, but the also-awful season three of
Stranger Things already told us that. I hope she moves on to bigger and better things soon.
