[FANTASIA 2018] ‘CAM’ Review

Cam girls lead an interesting life. In Daniel Goldharber’s film of Isa Mazzei’s script, aptly named CAM, Lola aka Alice (Madeline Brewer) is indeed one of these girls who live the selectively exposing life of a person who does activities on a live web camera. A very normal girl with friends and family, she’s a real person. She’s obsessed with what’s most important in this business, which is popularity. She’s been on the brink of breaking the top 50, and it’s an obsession of some sort. The thing is, Alice has a moral code that she won’t violate and it’s holding her success back, judging from what the most popular personalities on the website do. Then one morning she wakes up and discovers her password to the website doesn’t work. A phone call with customer service doesn’t help recover her account as the representative tells her that she’s active at the moment, and hangs up assuming her problem is solved. Sure enough she goes to her page and discovers that it’s her performing. Thinking it must be an old session that’s playing by accident, she posts a live comment and discovers that she is, somehow, live on video…but it’s not her. I don’t want to spoil where the movie goes beyond that.

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The movie is far more interesting in theory than in execution. Denis Villenueve’s excellent 2013 movie Enemy is a good example of the bizarre, symbolic, or even dream-like feeling that makes a story like this work. Without a real explanation of what exactly is happening, why Alice’s life has been replaced, we’re left with an inexplicable, surreal situation that should be handled in a more surreal fashion. Instead we’re set in what feels like a real world, with a real situation, and it’s something that nobody reacts properly to, especially not Alice herself. It’s as if instead of handling the situation logically, it drives her to an even higher level of obsession. It’s an interesting choice in a movie full of interesting choices. I didn’t always like what the choices were, but at least CAM is a movie that’s making them.

Some of the movie works well. Brewer’s performance is strong, even when what’s written for her doesn’t seem like a whole lot. I’m familiar with her because of a very memorable role in The Handmaid’s Tale, a very different persona than the one portrayed here, and I just saw her in a little movie called Hedgehog that she’s another entirely different character in. Point is, she’s great, and I love her. She’s got range and she’s really likable, and her doe eyes have an innocence that hide a lot of depth. The movie is also well produced, with Goldhaber possessing a visual confidence that a lot of first time horror directors lack. Lighting is particularly well used.

I really had high hopes for this one, and the results were mixed. There’s a great concept that just isn’t explored to total satisfaction here, and tonally doesn’t mesh with how strange the idea of a duplicate replacing you is. The interesting thing is that for the amount of good will that the Blumhouse production name brings to something, and the financial success is undeniably amazing, there are an equal number dumped to VOD and bound to be forgotten to obscurity. I have a feeling this might be another one, but I hope not. It’s definitely worth seeing if it works for you.

Good news! In addition to playing Fantasia 2018, the movie has been picked up for release on Netflix in the near future!