Like Me was directed, written, and edited by Robert Mockler and follows a teenage girl named Kiya, played by Addison Timlin, as she livestreams a series of crimes that she is committing. As the crimes that Kiya is committing escalates, she kidnaps a man, played by Larry Fessenden, and their odd relationship turns into a sort of friendship. While all this is happening Kiya’s internet presence is growing and a young boy, played by Ian Nelson, is uploading responses to her videos.
This film is kind of indescribable. The plot is relatively simple and straightforward, but the way the story is told is something completely unique and unexpected. The film is very psychedelic and has some experimental and disturbing editing and I loved it! There were so many scenes that had the same image repeating over and over and the camera moved in totally bizarre ways creating a terrifying and exhilarating experience. I love that Robert Mockler edited the film himself, because he definitely brought his own unique style to the film that couldn’t have been recreated by anyone else. The editing was scary sometimes, especially with the eating montages, which were grotesque, but they were also a lot of fun to watch just because of how bizarre it all was. The cinematography in the film was really great as well and I loved a lot of the framing and lighting and the over all style was wonderful.
The editing is definitely the best part of the film, although I liked everything else. This is the only film I have ever seen where I actually felt as if I was tripping on a drug. There were so many scenes where the editing was scary, but others where it was funny and had a very goofy aesthetic to it and it was all a blast to watch.
The performances were really spectacular as well. The lead actress was wonderful and she played a compelling yet horrible character perfectly. I liked her a lot and I thought that the balance between disturbed insanity, and calm collected thought was perfect. She had really good chemistry with Larry Fessenden and their conversations were a total blast. I loved the scenes where they were just talking about random things and they were some of my favorite moments of the film.
There were a couple YouTube montages in the film, and while they were funny sometimes, they felt very cringy and forced. There was no subtlety and almost every one of the videos sucked, but not in the right way. Ian Nelson’s character was making excessive response videos to Kiya and these were entertaining in exactly the way the film wanted. His acting was so over the top, and the dialogue he was given was ridiculous and vile, it fit the tone of the film perfectly and was hilarious.
I did like the way that the film dealt with social media and the need to be seen and the crazy things that people will do for attention. It was a very unique perspective on the issue and one that I found to be weirdly accurate, if not realistic. There is definitely something to be said for social media driving people to do crazy things in order to find something new to create. The film did all this without being too preachy and still having fun with its themes and characters.
There really isn’t much else to say about this film. It is a very enjoyable psychedelic neo-noir thriller, with some great editing and performances. It isn’t a masterpiece by any means but I had a total blast while watching this and if it sounds like something you want to watch then you should check it out. I will give Like Me a 7 out of 10.
Finn Kane Reviews 