'Infamous' Spoiler-Free Review: 'The (Chat) Room' of the social media age that's a delightfully campy mess
Joshua Caldwell's 'Infamous' starring Bella Thorne and Jake Manley is finally out and it's... well, it's complicated. Sometimes in life, perspective is everything and with 'Infamous', that is definitely the case. If you go into it expecting something along the lines of 'Gun Crazy', which the film clearly draws inspiration from, or hoping for a biting critique of social media and its corrupting influence on bright young minds, you are going to hate it. In fact, all you'll see is a hot mess of epic proportions that should probably never have been attempted.
Arielle Summers (Bella Thorne) is a psychopath who chases fame at the cost of literally everything. She is not some relatable anti-hero, she's a monster whose social media addiction is basically an excuse to let her unleash her inner demons. And partnering up with this young psycho, we have Dean Taylor (Jake Manley), a man whose brain is so firmly lodged in his pants that he almost never appears to use it. Honestly, the movie is extremely predictable and the only real suspense lies in the surprisingly long time it takes for these dim-witted "heroes" to get their comeuppance.
Of course, as we said earlier, this is all still dependent on what perspective you hold going into the movie. Now, if instead of a serious crime thriller, you're looking for a campy satire of everything from social media madness to gun control to the very sub-genre that 'Infamous' claims to be a part of, then you are going to be absolutely delighted. From this perspective, 'Infamous' is a masterpiece of camp. It is so delightfully terrible, it's actually funny how bad it is.
Years down the line, it's absolutely possible that 'Infamous' might become a huge cult classic. It may have set out to be the 'Bonnie and Clyde' of the social media age but the film is closer to being 'The Room' of chatrooms. So check it out anyway. Grab a bucket of popcorn and enjoy the show. But no matter what you do, please, please, do NOT take this movie seriously.
'Infamous' was released on June 12, 2020.
