Spree

Poster Spree

Spree.

2020
Color - 93mn - Original version with French subtitles
USA.
Comedy, Thriller.
  • 9 September 2020 15:15
    Showroom 500
  • 12 September 2020 15:30
    Showroom 300
  • International competition
  • Presentation reserved to audience above 12
Direction: Eugene Kotlyarenko.
Production: Jeff Betancourt, Matthew Budman, A.J. Del Cueto, Sumaiya Kaveh, Eugene Kotlyarenko.
Screenplay: Eugene Kotlyarenko, Gene McHugh.
Editing: Benjamin Moses Smith.
Photography: Jeff Leeds Cohn.
With: Joe Kerry, Sasheer Zamata, David Arquette, Kyle Mooney.

Kurt, a « Spree » Chauffeur – an Uber-like application - is desperate to get more followers on his channel, and has found a rather peculiar way to go viral. Anonymity will soon be a bad memory...

Under the guise of humorous horrific entertainment, Eugene Kotlyarenko and his co-writer Gene McHugh question our responsibility towards social networks, and the reign of pixelated super egos where a person's qualities are measured by a number of little red hearts. Already remarkable in Stranger Things, Joe Keery, plays a perfect selfie smiling psychopath. A younger cousin to Night Call's Jake Gyllenhal, he is the product of a voyeuristic society of appearances, that makes death a show, even provoking it if necessary. Talking about your dad or 9-11 is not sufficient to become a trendsetter ; even in the case of murder, the voracious public needs novelty. Using a feedback concept, the filmmaker cleverly uses the same methods he denounces with every possible video broadcasting mode - horizontal and vertical - not forgetting keyed in logos or  scrolling comments, sometimes more terrifying than the act itself. Without turning into a moralizing lecture, this very funny and worrisome Spree, in total sync with its times, points a finger at their perverse effects and dysfunctions. If you like, please like my page.