Cam (2018)

First-time director Daniel Goldhaber’s Cam, about a savvy, sexy camgirl who finds that she’s been replaced on her own stream by an identical replica of herself, doesn’t sound any better or worse than the myriad of mediocre content popping up every week on Netflix. But this dark, intoxicating horror/thriller is actually a clever examination of the relationship between our IRL selves and the idealized facades we present online (as well as the depersonalized mental state required of those in porn and porn-adjacent industries). In fact, in Netflix’s defense, this needed to feel like a “hard R” to truly work – and it does. Cam is seductive and terrifying, a heady, fetishized dose of erotic horror.

There’s plenty to praise here: Goldhaber’s direction is confident and Isa Mazzei’s script intelligent, the soundtrack and cinematography both stylish and effective. But Cam benefits most profoundly from a terrific performance from lead Madeline Brewer. Brewer makes for a very sympathetic protagonist throughout her Kafkaesque descent into existential identity crisis.

Cam is not particularly plausible – the cam girl ranking system isn’t convincing, many of the girls on the site are inexplicably actually hang out in real life, Brewer’s Lola reacts to an inexplicable metaphysical nightmare as if her credit card has been hacked, and, in perhaps the most unlikely twist of all, the site has a responsive 24/7 customer service line. But Cam is so tonally pitch-perfect that even these illogicalities feel part of the film’s stylized universe. The ending doesn’t quite pack the same punch as what proceeds it, but Cam is still one of the best and most exciting films of the year.