Ingrid Goes West: How Far Would You Go to Meet Your Idol?
I’d like to start this by saying hi my name is Nicole and I am an Elizabeth Olsen simp. But not in a creepy stalker/ obsessed…okay maybe slightly obsessed but definitely not the stalker part… I swear.
For someone who no longer has social media, “said with a frowning face”, Elizabeth Olsen certainly has power over it. I decided to watch one of her best non-Marvel movies, Ingrid Goes West, where she plays a social media influencer. I’ve been wanting to watch this movie for a while and I finally sat down to watch.
Ingrid Goes West is a 2017 black comedy drama directed by Matt Spicer starring Audrey Plaza as the title character Ingrid and my celeb crush Elizabeth Olsen as Instagram influencer Taylor Sloane. With a supporting cast including Wyatt Russell, Marvel’s recent punching bag, his words not mine, O’Shea Jackson Jr., Pom Klementieff, aka Mantis, and Billy Magnussen.
The film follows Ingrid (Plaza), who becomes obsessed with Instagram influencer Taylor Sloane (Olsen), as she travels west to become best friends with her. Going as far as changing her hair to look like Taylor’s, going to all the places she goes too, and even kidnapping Taylor’s dog. Ingrid is able to lie her way into Taylor’s life by “finding” Taylor’s “lost” dog. Ingrid and Taylor quickly bond, even going on a day trip to Joshua Tree. Everything seems to be going Ingrid’s way until Taylor’s brother comes to town and another influencer begins to steal Taylor’s attention. Ingrid’s new life with her new BFF soon begins to unravel. Wrap that with a botched kidnapping and a Batman and Cat woman role play sex scene.
Ingrid Goes West shows how obsessive and consuming social media can be, even borderline dangerous with tagging your location that allows anyone to be able to see where you are. Might as well nickname social media the stalker yellow pages.
Plaza plays a very convincing stalker, I kept going back and forth with whether to feel sorry for her. She was crazy but I felt bad. Hell, I even could relate to her a little minus the stalking. Olsen plays an influencer too well; you would think she was a regular Instagram user herself but sadly she stopped using the app in 2020.
I started to watch for Lizzie Olsen, but I stayed for Audrey Plaza and Lizzie.
My rating: 5/5
Watch Ingrid Goes West on Hulu
