New Yorkers who want a version of Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s “All About Eve” updated for the age of social media are recommended to Alex Russell’s debut feature, “Lurker.” You’ll recall the 1950 film’s story of Margo Channing (Bette Davis), a veteran stage actress whose career is starting to feel its age. When approached by an adoring admirer with a hardscrabble upbringing, Eve Harrington (Anne Baxter), Margo welcomes the young woman into the fold only to discover that generosity of spirit is sometimes repaid with avarice and duplicity.
And so it proves for Oliver (Archie Madekwe), a pop singer just a hair’s breadth from stardom who is at the center of “Lurker.” He’s a narcissist of the first order: With those looks and that voice, how could he not take on airs and ditch his surname, à la Cher, Adele, and Shakira? As it turns out, this London-to-L.A. transplant is seeking distance from an untenable family situation back home. In surrounding himself with sycophants and enablers, Oliver has cultivated a “new family” by being picky about the company he keeps.
Maybe not picky enough, though. Upon sauntering into a boutique clothing store, Oliver acknowledges the attention of its whispering, star-struck denizens, but truly perks up when the stereo begins playing “My Love Song For You” by Nile Rodgers. He walks up to the store’s two attendants, Jamie (Sunny Suljic) and Matthew (Théodore Pellerin), comments on the playlist, and notes that Rodgers’s song is among his favorites. Jamie fumbles and mumbles, but not so Matthew, who declares himself a fan of Rodgers but, you know, not a fan of Oliver. Matthew’s guilelessness piques the singer’s interest. Oliver invites Matthew to hang with his crew at tonight’s club date.
Matthew is, we soon learn, brimming with guile. True, he’s kind of a loser, what with living with grandma, tootling around Los Angeles on a bike, and his fidgety, awkward manner. When Matthew shows up in the green room, Oliver’s entourage think they’ve got his number. Two inseparable hangers-on, Swett (Zack Fox) and Bowen (Olawale Onayemi), give the new guy a tense going-over, toying with Matthew’s expectations and naivete. Oliver takes in these shenanigans with a weary mix of apathy and bemusement. His manager, Shai (Havana Rose Liu), seems sympathetic to Matthew’s plight but is, on the whole, hard to parse.
Matthew undergoes further indignities — being with the in-crowd necessitates doing Oliver’s laundry, cleaning house, and other menial tasks. Still, our anti-hero is in it for the long game. Matthew knew full well who Oliver was upon their first meeting and feigned ignorance as a ploy to separate himself from the average fan. Before long Matthew wheedles his way into Oliver’s confidence, proving himself valuable as a cinematographer and idea man. Do we ever really know what Matthew makes of Oliver’s music? There’s no doubting his attraction to the lifestyle of the rich and famous.
Mr. Russell’s picture moseys along more casually than a good set-up requires, but once Matthew manages to film Oliver in a compromising position, “Lurker” turns nasty and is all the better for it. With the telltale evidence squirreled away on his hard drive, Matthew doesn’t blackmail his way into Oliver’s orbit — he begins determining its scope and velocity. Matthew achieves his own kind of celebrity via Instagram, TikTok, and other online platforms. Mr. Pellerein does a stellar job of navigating cunning and cluelessness.
Oliver tiptoes around Matthew for the sake of his career, as does Oliver’s increasingly disgruntled crew, who are all too aware of the extortion taking place. Although we’re never clear what exactly Swett and Bowen do for their boss — they spend most of the time playing video games — the two dole out a beating when the occasion calls for it. Matthew receives a bloodied comeuppance, but even violence proves flimsy as an obstacle to one man’s ambition.
Mr. Russell’s script is filtered with a knowing strain of comedy — he’s done work on the FX series “The Bear” — and if the reaction of the younger members of the audience with whom I attended the screening is any indication, much of “Lurker” is hilarious. Folks who are longer in the tooth will likely find the menace inherent in the movie a hedge against laughter — partly because the byways of living online weren’t bred in the bone, mostly because one’s autonomy was hardwon. “Lurker” will likely prompt worry in different ways for different audiences. Either way it does so with a nettlesomesome authority.
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