Ingrid Goes West (2017)

[Glory]

I looked for a thread, but could not find one. I watched this last night and have a lot of feelings about it, mostly that I'm unable to articulate. 

I thought it was, by turns, awful and funny and heartbreaking. Plaza was really great and so was the guy who played Daniel. 

Did anyone else watch this? I would love to hear what others thought. 

[enoughcats]

I am waiting for a library copy.  I'll let you predict if I will 'get' it.  I'm old ( I remember watching the tapes of Queen Elizabeth II's coronation that were flown to NYC to be shown on US TV.  That old.)  But I sort of follow social media.  what does it take to understand the sort of actions that Ingrid took?

[SeanC]

It's one of my favourite films of the year, and sadly overlooked.  

[tongueincheek]

This was in my top 20 films of 2017 as well, and I agree that it was severely overlooked. The movie really creeps up on you, and its horrifyingly appropriate ending perfectly shows how the pendulum swings both ways with social media. Aubrey Plaza was pitch perfect - tragic and heartbreaking. I also thought Elizabeth Olsen and Wyatt Russell really carved out some nice nuance to their roles as well. And O'Shea Jackson, Jr. was an absolute prince. If you haven't seen it yet, or want to watch it again, it's streaming on Hulu now. 

[CherryMalotte]

Aubrey was great in this, as well as O'Shea Jr.

[Steph J]

I thought Aubrey Plaza was amazing and to me this movie had one of the single funniest gags of the year, when Wyatt Russell and Elizabeth Olsen's characters take Ingrid character to see his "art" and it's just a painting of horses across which he's written #Squad Goals.

Curious what others think of the ending: 

Spoiler

Do you think that it's meant to be taken literally, that Ingrid was saved in the nick of time and became the latest viral sensation, or is that final scene just the fantasy she has as she's dying? I lean towards it being a fantasy.

[SeanC]

2 hours ago, Steph J said:

Curious what others think of the ending: 

  Hide contents

Do you think that it's meant to be taken literally, that Ingrid was saved in the nick of time and became the latest viral sensation, or is that final scene just the fantasy she has as she's dying? I lean towards it being a fantasy.

I don't see any reason to take it as anything other than literal.  It's similar to the ending of Young Adult, in that the protagonist comes so, so close to getting the help she needs, but is then snapped back into her prior state.

[Steph J]

36 minutes ago, SeanC said:

I don't see any reason to take it as anything other than literal.  It's similar to the ending of Young Adult, in that the protagonist comes so, so close to getting the help she needs, but is then snapped back into her prior state.

I don't know, I kinda disagree. My reason is 

Spoiler

what are the odds that O'Shea Jackson Jr.'s character, who is hospitalized and out of touch with her for however many days she's in Joshua Tree (and who would be totally justified in never wanting anything to do with her ever again and unfollowing her on her social media before she even made the video), would know where she is in order to send EMTs to her? And even if he did know where she is, what are the odds that he would see her video in time to send help?

I guess I just find it odd that a movie this dark would have a happy-ish ending where the protagonist gets everything she wants.

[methodwriter85]

Is it a really happy ending, though? Whether she realizes it or not, Ingrid just turned herself into a commodity which means she'll have people trying to exploit her instead of helping her. 15 minutes of fame is NOT going to be good for a mentally ill person. The homeless guy with the radio announcer voice comes to mind.

[Steph J]

Fair point. I guess I just mean that the miraculous nature of the ending makes it seem ambiguous to me.

[methodwriter85]

I kind of figured that Ingrid amassed a small but very dedicated cult following who used internet doxxing or whatever to figure out where she was, and Daniel got tipped off. It would be kind of ironic if Ingrid had her own stalker. That was how I took the ending in any event- we see that IngridGoesWest developed a following and I feel like that had to be foreshadowing that her fans would save her using her own stalking methods.

[HunterHunted]

13 hours ago, methodwriter85 said:

I kind of figured that Ingrid amassed a small but very dedicated cult following who used internet doxxing or whatever to figure out where she was, and Daniel got tipped off. It would be kind of ironic if Ingrid had her own stalker. That was how I took the ending in any event- we see that IngridGoesWest developed a following and I feel like that had to be foreshadowing that her fans would save her using her own stalking methods.

A little like Crazy Ex-Girlfriend. The protagonist is an obsessed stalker with mental illness who stalks a guy from her past. In a twist in the first season, she has her own stalker who is very similar to herself, who has been obsessed with her since college.  

[Slovenly Muse]

Glad to see some discussion of this movie! I had heard good things, and finally checked it out. I enjoyed a lot of it (especially the performances), but the ending was a miss for me. I think I see what they were trying to do, in a "be careful what you wish for" way, but I think framing Ingrid's sudden social media fame as a sort of happy ending for her was a mistake. It seemed to sidestep its opportunities to delve into the power of real human relationships, contrasted with the Instagram faux-relationships she seeks. (And I never quite understood what point they were trying to make about the power of inauthenticity (like Elizabeth Olsen's character) to bring fame online, AND authenticity (Ingrid) ALSO bringing fame on the same platform - is there a judgment being made about either method?). And by giving her the followers and influence she wanted, this ending does nothing to help Ingrid really heal or find meaning in her life. I find it tragic, actually, that she is left just as adrift as ever, but in much higher waters, and not understanding what this means for her. Besides that, what are the lessons we can take from this? That the cure for desperately wanting social media followers to drown out your loneliness is GETTING social media followers? That if you feel like no one loves you, publicly attempting suicide will solve your problems? It just didn't click for me, and didn't leave me feeling like I appreciated the takeaway. It could be, too, that it's been long enough since the movie came out that the social media landscape has changed in the meantime and the movie's ideas no longer quite match the reality of the issues with social media today. In any case, I'm not sorry I watched it, but I do wish it had been a bit more pointed and purposeful in what it was trying to say ABOUT social media as a way of connecting with people.

[methodwriter85]

Again though, I really don't see the ending framed as being a "happy" ending. I think it's very similar to the ending of a Black mirror episode about a man who threatened to kill himself while ranting about the artificiality of society, who was then given his own show. His authentic moment was monetized and while it gave him a better apartment, it didn't improve his life.

Ingrid's true authentic moment was monetized and while she does have a real friend in Sean, she's going to have a lot of sharks following her now. And what sucks is that she clearly hasn't gained the ability to recognize true friends vs. real friends. She's just happy because she finally has the fame she wanted. So yeah, a "happy" ending in the sense that she got what she wanted, but it won't be what she expects.

It's kind of been interesting to see how social media works and how those stars can get backlash- James Charles is a really good example if you want to follow his whole controversy.