The LEGO Movie 2: The Second Part
Green Book
Widows
The Walking Dead
Log in with Facebook
OR
By creating an account, you agree to the Privacy Policy and the Terms and Policies, and to receive email from Rotten Tomatoes and Fandango.
Please enter your email address and we will email you a new password.
Critics Consensus: Led by strong performances from Aubrey Plaza and Elizabeth Olsen, Ingrid Goes West delivers smart, topical humor underlined by timely social observations.
Critic Consensus: Led by strong performances from Aubrey Plaza and Elizabeth Olsen, Ingrid Goes West delivers smart, topical humor underlined by timely social observations.
All Critics (178) | Top Critics (35) | Fresh (152) | Rotten (26)
Writer-director Matt Spicer makes his feature debut with a horribly enjoyable satire, painted in hard-edged, acrid colours: the colours of an Instragram post, in fact.
The experience is akin to being kneaded by a cat - now soft paws, now sharp claws, alternatingly sweet and deeply uncomfortable.
"Ingrid Goes West" is a sharp, insightful modern day stalker fantasy, "Single White Female" through a Valencia Instagram filter.
Plaza, of course, is marvelous in the title role, embracing Ingrid's unflattering neediness with a commitment that's scary.
Aubrey Plaza is brilliant in "Ingrid goes West," Matt Spicer's smart, satirical and sometimes scathing takedown of the vapidity social media sometimes injects into life.
Now 33, Plaza can still get away with playing an ingenue (that's what Ingrid is, a toxic ingenue). She can do comedy. She can do drama. She's best of all, as here, at combining both.
It's a film that exhibits both how we want to be seen and how we actually are. We're all humans, with needs and wants and flaws...
A thoughtful and savage take on cyber bullying and the emptiness of social media that consumes most of our everyday lives.
Ingrid Goes West is a comedy masquerading as a psychological thriller, an allegory for our increasing dependence on empty social media interactions cleverly disguised as a chick flick.
Fittingly dark and humorously depraved, Ingrid Goes West is a biting, off-the-cuff commentary on neediness and the omnipresent social media culture.
Poses potent, pressing commentary about the dark consequences of social media oversharing.
Ingrid Thorburn is a Rupert Pupkin for the modern era.
Of course Plaza is the perfect fit for an obsessive fan / stalker Ingrid. The beginning is particularly funny, mocking the instagram craze and its participants on both sides, but never entirely giving up on its deeply flawed characters. While things get a little more dramatic later on, the humor does turn darker but it's abandoned altogether. The solution works, too. LA, Venice and Joshua Tree look amazing and the actors all fill their roles with life. Well done.
Super Reviewer
Really enjoyed this one. Definitely be watching it again. So relevant to all the falseness online and I really enjoyed Ingrid’s stalker tendencies!
I'm super uncomfortable in a really good way.
While technology surrounds us each and every day, we really don't look to the negativities of it all that much. Sure, there are trends that people follow throughout social media and certain apps that become popular, but you never really hear about stories like the one told in Ingrid Goes West. While this isn't a true story, the elements feel very realistic and this can be a very hard film to watch at times, in terms of its daring subject matter. When you step back and look at how much popularity can consume someone, it becomes a very scary thought, which is exactly what makes this movie so great. Here is why believe Ingrid Goes West is a very relevant movie and one that's worth your time. Being a loner and having nothing to do with her life after the passing of her mother, Ingrid uses those funds to Tavel to Los Angeles in order to stalk and befriend a famous Instagram persona in Taylor Sloane. Very quickly becoming friends after setting everything up perfectly, this movie comes off as more of a quirky comedy throughout the first act, but that aspect very quickly devolves into a gut-wrenching story of lies and deceit. This is a harmless premise that seems like it could almost be too annoying to watch at first, but the material present as this film comes to a close, is worth the price of admission alone. Aubrey Plaza is great in her own way at almost everything she does. I've come to like her in pretty much everything I've ever seen her in, but I believe the show-stealer is Elizabeth Olsen here. She hasn't really been given many meaty roles to dive into, and while I wouldn't exactly call this a meaty role, she definitely brings her all here and makes you believe in this "perfect" character. The bond that Plaza and Olsen share leapt off the screen, almost to the point where I found myself upset that this wasn't;t a true friendship that was going to last throughout the entire duration of the film. This was to be expected though, due to the fact that this film needed a few emotionally challenging moments in order to earn its welcome. This is simultaneously a very difficult, yet easy film to watch. Through the quirky and loveable performance that Plaza delivers here, her dark and depressing side also needs to be present in order for the film to feel like it had a payoff. Without spoiling anything, the third act spirals out of control (in a good way), providing some very deeply emotional moments, making you truly feel for certain people out there in the world and how fame can really get to someone's head. While the thoughts and actions that Ingrid goes through are definitely not something all celebrities go through, this is a story that happens far too often in the real world. Using popular terms like hashtag and countless other abbreviations throughout the film, I can easily see many viewers being turned off, especially if they're not familiar with today's lingo. Ingrid Goes West is a film for those from the ages of 14 and up. Yes, some of the material is a little harsh for younger viewers, but kids in high school are just as likely to end up like Ingrid does as anyone else is. With a very good and well planned screenplay, accompanied by solid direction and wonderfully realistic performances, I found this movie to be near perfect for what it set out to accomplish. Sure, it does have a few annoying lines of dialogue throughout and you will most certainly hate a lot of the characters, but that's also the point. In the end, this is a very relevant film for todays day in age, so it comes highly recommended in my book.
There are no approved quotes yet for this movie.
View All