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A driving force of ride-sharing turns a serial killer into this miserable social media mystery.
By Jeannette Catsoulis
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Horrible to watch and agonizing to pay attention, “Spree” will have to keep the record of the most annoying characters in a single movie. This superficial interpretation of the evils of Internet addiction, which broadly combines social media complaints and slasher comedy, is as small as it is funny.
Joe Keery plays Kurt Kunkle, a soft-haired psychopath frustrated by the fact that his Instagram fans have been counted in single digits for more than a decade. An approximate comic strip of his life so far includes his excitable father (David Arquette), a D.J. chasing his own Xanadu from screen perspectives, and an enemy (Josh Ovalle) whose online fame far exceeds Kurt’s. Tired of imploring other influencers to label him in his feeds, Kurt, the driving force of a ride-sharing service called Spree, implements a plan: if he kills his most repulsive passengers: a white supremacist here, a chovinist in his mouth, and broadcasts his destination live, then his online celebrity will explode.
Directed through Eugene Kotlyarenko, “Spree” is an aesthetic nightmare on screens, dividing, remodeling and crawling with real-time observation of Kurt’s bloody acts. This infection of images from our films with frantic imitations of the online habit has been spreading for some time, and “Spree” reaches a kind of nadir. In addition, the film’s lack of information – “I May Destroy You” on HBO gives a much greater insight into the dark seductions of influencer culture – is disappointing. Kotlyarenko is completely unaware that his bloodshed suggests that he is so thirsty for being noticed as his protagonist in poor health.
Spree Not classified. Running time: 1 hour 33 minutes. Rent or shop on Amazon, Google Play and streaming platforms and pay TV operators.
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