At first I sneered at this cute little Kanye West wannabe and believed he deserved a curse like Matthew inflicted on him, a pair of shallow sham-humans that deserve each other, but lo and behold, this overgrown child and his mean cronies grew on me and gained my sympathies. If you ever encounter someone like this in your life, there’s no getting away fast enough.
This directorial debut by TV producer and screenwriter Alex Russell (The Bear; Beef) evoked a few masterpieces such as Nightcrawler with the clever hungry-eyed lean Jake Gyllenhaal and the clever hungry-eyed lean Caleb Landry-Jones in Antiviral and the clever hungry-eyed lean Barry Keoghan in Saltburn and the clever hungry-eyed Matt Damon in The Talented Mr Ripley and – oh, I see the pattern. Not to say that Lurker is derivative, it takes film language from these predecessors to craft a very unsettling subtle narrative that I kept attempting to guess the ending of and kept getting it wrong as it progressed.
Oliver, played by Archie Madekwe from Saltburn, is introduced to us as an already jaded star yet naive and egotistical enough to hand his number out to the first stranger working in a vintage store, who plays his favourite tunes yet acts indifferent to him, in a desperate bid to earn his affections. Who just happens to be the unassuming Morning, starring Théodore Pellerin from On Becoming a God in Central Florida. Oh, if only you knew what Matthew has hanging in his closet, Oliver.
He believes he holds all the power, choosing those who are permitted to stay close. A sad legacy of unoriginal neglected upbringing maybe. Oliver’s self-inflated worth is eroded underneath what he consciously exposes to others and his fear of mediocrity and misunderstanding as an “artist”. Thus, amongst all the childish frolicking on the beach or crashing bikes into neighbours’ bins, he rotates his entourage to keep devotees close while ruthlessly filtering out anything that genuinely challenges him.
But Matthew is liquid. Any obstacle in his path is seamlessly circumvented. He holds no true grudges but simply swallows his frustration and treats his life as a puzzle to be solved. Everyone around him is a competitor that he believes he needs to outsmart. He absorbs information and weaponises it seamlessly, embedding himself as a “useful” essential figure in the room. He drip feeds affection and approval, to taste, and removes it just as quickly. Fairness and loyalty don’t enter in. Matthew quickly recognises Oliver’s pattern of using and then disposing people, and sets to work insulating himself from the risk of becoming a victim to it.
There’s a few key scenes where you witness his ingenuity firsthand for flipping the dynamics effortless in his quest to be an effective parasite. He isn’t someone that merits hatred. He’s no different from you or I, after all. He just “wants more”, to use his words. To not just be in the orbit of celebrity but to sculpt it and bring it to its full potential.
It feels like the AI feature grafted on to my browser that I didn’t ask for and it’s insisting I can’t live without it. That would be fun if that’s the hidden message here, but it’s more likely to be a cautionary tale about stagelight chasing and not knowing your own worth.
It’s a lovely movie to watch when you’re not squirming at the proceeds. The divide between Oliver and Matthew is expressed clearly using colour, contrast, and film resolution. Fixed perspectives with flattering high contrast glossy neon and strobing lights in Netflix-ified clubs to mid-century repurposed interiors and pastels in desert settings, cast against moving handheld grainy cuts shot by a twenty year old camcorder for Matthew’s documentary. Speak with enough confidence and people will believe your cobbled, shaky, off focus shooting is art.
There’s very little excess exposition in this tense film, it unfolded perfectly for me as you scrutinise character reactions and adaptation to their sordid circumstances. All to a bang on soundtrack creepily mirroring each scene and giving us a window into the heads of these users.
Lurker will be hitting Luna Cinemas soon from Thursday 27 November, don’t miss it.
Four out of five stars.
* By Gayle O’Leary. If you’d like to catch up on more by Gayle here on Fremantle Shipping News, look right here!
~ If you’d like to COMMENT on this or any of our stories, don’t hesitate to email our Editor.
~ WHILE YOU’RE HERE –
PLEASE HELP US TO GROW FREMANTLE SHIPPING NEWS
FSN is a reader-supported, volunteer-assisted online magazine all about Fremantle. Thanks for helping to keep FSN keeping on!
~ Don’t forget to SUBSCRIBE to receive your free copy of The Weekly Edition of the Shipping News each Friday!
