Film Review: Spree
Joe Keery in Spree. Photo: PR Supplied
The first twelve minutes of Eugene Kotlyarenko's new film, Spree is plain and boring to put it nicely. My initial thoughts on the film were that it was going to be another teen movie, trying too hard to be relatable and a typical coming of age movie. I was admittedly, very wrong.
Starring Joe Keery, known for his role in Stranger Things, plays a young adult named Kurt Kunkle, or Kurtsworld96, obsessed with social media and gaining views. The movie is filmed entirely on GoPros in Kurt's car, live streaming on his phone, security cameras, and police body cams. This points to the overall tone of the movie that social media is everywhere and everything is documented.
Kurt goes on a murderous rampage as a rideshare driver, calling the day #thelesson, all so he can get more views and be famous. The movie tries really hard to target teenagers and the "internet" generation by constantly sliding in slang and newer ideas that today's generations would relate to. Slang such as, "snowflake", "libtard", "incel", "twitterbot" and "negging". Usually, when this is done in films it is overly cringe and doesn't always fit cohesively, however, I felt in Spree it gave off its desired effect.
Kotlyarenko shocks the audience in every scene, the film is very unpredictable and jaw-dropping. This film has many parallels to the school shooter trope, the white boy with no regard for anyone but themselves. While the film being erratic and very graphic makes viewing it a great experience, the downside to this is that at times the storyline can seem a little silly. Could Kurt really murder 3 people at the start of the day on a live stream, and still not get caught by the end of the day? Is it really believable that Ariana Grande's brother gets caught in Kurt's sunroof and gets eaten by a dog?
Maybe not, but it is fun to see Frankie Grande snort drugs in his back seat. The film gives off vibes of satire horror films such as Scary Movie, with Spree not being quite as intentionally silly, but the overall movie leaving you with a kind of mindless, gory, questionable experience.
The best thing about the film is its relatability. In many scenes the screen is split up into varying angles, different live streams, and different cameras. The live streams have comments from people watching, some of which are quite humorous. The comments are clearly carefully thought-out, all being very relatable to the target audience and things you would read on streamers live streams in real life. The comments question whether what Kurt is doing is real or not - but it doesn't really matter because it's only a matter of time before they move onto the next "new thing". The comments are a nice little add on to the movie, which you couldn't read all of it on your first time watching, but it certainly adds to the feeling of being "real" and helps make the audience relate, who have been a part of a live stream before. It also immerses you into the film and makes you feel like you are actually watching Kurt live.
Spree is quite horrific, showing multiple people die, as the audience you almost feel a sense of guilt wanting to watch and see what Kurt does next. Joe Keery who plays Kurt carries the film, his incredible acting taking over the character - almost as if he isn’t even acting at all. "
Spree speaks to the influencer culture very well and isn't overly preachy about it like many films tend to be. While the movie is certainly entertaining and jaw-dropping, it lacks originality overall. My rating is 6.5/10 - But regardless if it is original or not, I do believe everyone should see this film simply for its great acting, awesome camera angles, and ironic ending.
6.5/10
Spree is released on Foxtel and Stan until November 11 and will be available to rent on November 25th on iTunes, Youtube Movies, Fetch, Microsoft Store & Google Play.