The title is wrong, but what Deepfake gets right is the sense that, for too many people, life is a performance for the approval of strangers instead of something to please yourself. This movie was clearly made for no money, filmed almost entirely in a single Manhattan apartment, and with costumes, casting and editing unusually credited to the production company Back Bay Studios instead of a person. It is also a vicious spoof of influencer culture, making it clear how dangerous it is to let other people or an algorithm make your choices. Deepfake doesn’t quite land the plane, but the flight itself is a funny and pointed little ride.
Jane (Jessica DiGiovanni) is reeling, both from a breakup with her boyfriend Tyler (Nick Cabot Rodriguez) and the realisation that she doesn’t have a shoulder to cry on. All her friends – she is in her early thirties, in New York City – are married and wrangling small children, with no energy left to pay attention to her. The fact she works remotely from her apartment hardly helps, either. The isolation was fine when Tyler was around but now he’s gone emptiness is taking over. So Jane does the obvious thing of using an app to hire a friend, one with a good star rating but who isn’t too expensive. The chosen friend is named Zoe (Sophia Lucia Parola) and she quickly becomes someone who tells Jane everything Jane wants to hear. Rather than enjoy the city or do literally anything to get out of her own depressing head, Jane becomes fixated on the idea of getting back with Tyler. The obvious way to do that is ensure that her Instagram looks so great that Tyler will come crawling back on his own. So Zoe hires London (Jocelyn Weisman), a young but experienced image consultant, who promises to deliver exactly what Jane has asked for as long as Jane does exactly what Jane says. Jane agrees, but by the time she realises the ramifications, it’s too late.
For a movie which starts out being very conscious of money, it ends by ignoring financial reality entirely, which is a bad mistake. How Jane can afford all this and Manhattan rent too is never answered, even when there’s a biting little subplot showing how she manages to balance all the demands on her time. But writer-director Matt Eames is aiming to mock those who think social media likes are the best judge of something or someone’s value, without mocking the people who know how to bend that mentality for their own purposes. Jane is the fool for not knowing how to play the game, and the fact Zoe and London take advantage of that is not their fault. By the time Jane’s apartment goes from a cozy space full of quirky vintage finds into a personality-free area that could be located in Melbourne or Michigan as well as Manhattan, Jane starts to second-guess herself. Yet the idea that the algorithm knows best, whether that’s the color of your nail polish or who you should marry, is one Zoe and London don’t resist. The double-think is right there, they are being paid to make Jane the most algorithm-pleasing version of herself, and if Jane doesn’t want what they were hired to deliver that is her problem.
The most interesting choice of the movie is in the flashbacks of Jane and Tyler’s relationship. These badly damage the pacing, but they also make it clear that Tyler wasn’t much of a boyfriend. Unfortunately Deepfake never follows up on that by wondering why, in those circumstances, Jane is going to all this trouble. Plenty of fish, and that. Has Jane fooled herself into wanting Tyler because she wants the same lifestyle she thinks her married friends have? Does she genuinely think she loves him, or is something more insidious going on? It’s unfortunate the movie never even asks those questions.
You can’t fault Deepfake for trying, but either it should have kept it focus laser tight, or otherwise gone whole hog in blowing up all its targets. And yet its message gets through in spite of this lack of clarity, which is an impressive achievement. Let’s hope Deepfake opens genuine doors for everyone involved in its creation.
Deepfake recently played at the Tribeca Film Festival.
Learn more about the film at the Tribeca site for the title.
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