FAKE FAMOUS
US, 2021, 87 minutes, Colour.
Directed by Nick Bilton.
Do we want to have our cake – and eat it? Delicious for a time that then possible stomach troubles, even extreme indigestion.
This is one of the messages of this documentary about influencers, and people are famous simply because of their being famous.
The film opens with crowds of tourists posing against a pink wall in Los Angeles, an in-destination, apparently, by 2020, for people to come and take selfies, a peculiar manifestation of herd instinct.
Then an introduction to the writer-director, Nick Bilton, journalist with American papers and magazines, interested in social media and its effects. He and his team decide to conduct an experiment, to create three Influencers from nothing, promote them, films, advertising, investment in bolts, build up their reputations and followers of their created-from-nothing influencers. The director speaks to camera, explaining what he is doing, his intentions, progress – and his amazement at the results of the experiment.
The screenplay notes that in the past when children were asked what they wanted to be in life, it was the obvious doctors, lawyers, teachers… Now it is to be an Influencer, to be famous, to have millions of followers like celebrities, for instance, Kim Kardashian (although, there is some revelation that many of her followers are bols).
The first part of the film is auditions, plenty of them, the desire to be famous on display, often inept, generally narcissistic. Then, three are chosen, The Young woman who is not afraid to be upfront, an African-American who has the touch of the cynical, then a wide-eyed young gay man who joins in enthusiastically.
This expose of would-be influences is surprisingly interesting. But, when the audience sees the efforts of the staff to provide images, most of them fake, set ups in very ordinary situations or lavish locations which are hired less expensively for the hour, snapshots, poses, some awkward in reality but looking attractive on camera, the beginning of likes, the bots increasing the volume of followers, the appeal to companies to use these young influences to promote their businesses…
Two things happen. With the two men, they find it too much after some time, inauthentic, having an effect on their sense of integrity, moving out. The young woman is highly delighted, getting all kinds of boosts from her followers (real or not) and being pursued by companies even to fully paid holidays and spending grants.
The other thing that happens is Covid. With the deserted streets and lockdown, the cheery scenes of influencers out and about, on the beach, on holidays, is revealed as phony.
While this is a quick portrait of a 21st-century phenomenon, it could also serve as an alert, even as a warning, to those who think that fulfilment in life is to be an influencer.
