by Samuel Nichols, Contributing Writer
The majority of us online do not have a massive following. We are there to stay up to date with friends, hear the best jokes, learn about trends, or get our news. But online existence can be incredibly bleak. Websites like Twitter, Reddit, Facebook, and even more deep sites like 4chan, contain content that would make any mother blush. And continual exposure to it can make a person very jaded. American Sweatshop tells a harrowing tale of witnessing something so heinous online that it follows you home and into your mind.
Daisy (Lili Reinhart) works for a large social media company reviewing reported posts and the content therein. She sees a lot of disturbing videos, posts, and pictures every day, but she has decent coworkers to get her through, in Ava (Daniela Melchior), Paul (Jeremy Ang Jones), and Bob (Joel Fry). One day, Daisy comes across a video depicting an incredibly tortuous act. Becoming enamored with finding a way to report this and make sure the offender faces justice, Daisy starts to act more and more erratically. Will she be able to get some kind of justice or will she get pulled further and further into the gutter?
Easily the strongest aspect of Sweatshop is its willingness to get into how constant social media interaction can affect you. Each character feels covered in a kind of mental grime easily attributed to the incredibly relatable habit of constant scrolling. Just this last week I weekend I personally was feeling so overwhelmed with all the conflict online. It got so bad I had to step away to my happy media and watched Bob’s Burgers. That overexposure can put a damper on your well meaning. I can only imagine staring at pornography or incredible violence or hateful rhetoric can hurt you even worse. So the movie has you on its side right away, rooting for Daisy and her coworkers to find peace.
How that grime shows up in our characters is through a sense of apathy, and the twisted sense of humor in Daisy and her coworkers. The constant, vicious pounding of social media exposure leads them to become numb to what they deal with everyday. While I commend the logic of the writing, it is a difficult acting task that I don’t think everyone quite pulls off. A lot of subtlety is needed here, and yes, there is some subtlety from our supporting cast, but nothing remarkable. Reinhart does get more screen time and a more meaty role to dig into, so I can’t knock her, but I wish there was more for her coworkers to do.
Therein lies the problem overall with this kind of story: A jaded picture of existence does not make for an easy watch. It’s a valuable message, but I don’t know if it transfers well in a narrative movie. I don’t want to spend two hours of my life staring at people becoming jaded by staring at a computer screen.
Rating: It Was Just Okay
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