Tonight I'm reviewing the horror / thriller Netflix film, Cam, directed by Daniel Goldhaber, and stars Madeline Brewer (Orange Is The New Black / Hemlock Grove), Melora Walters (Boogie Nights and Magnolia), and Delvin Druid (13 Reasons Why).
Lola (Madeline Brewer) is a "porn camgirl" who spends her nights chatting and performing pornographic shows on her live webcam and tries desperately to get into the top ranks by doing crazy shenanigans such as eating food, group shows, and many other wild activities that I can't describe without spoiling. One day, she discovers that her account has been compromised and a doppelganger has replaced her on her live show and the rest of the film becomes a mind screw of twists and turns as she discovers more on what's happening with this "replica" of herself.
This is the second film that I've seen this year that uses this gimmick of using live chat / web cam / found footage-esque filmmaking that I am glad to see has been getting more attention in movies today. The other film that I saw this year that had a similar feel was Searching, which I found to be one of the best movies of the year and my favorite to use this type of gimmick in a very realistic and convincing way. This film goes for more of a psychological thriller vibe and while I enjoyed it, it does have a major flaw that I'll get into later.
Pros: Madeline Brewer's performance as Lola was terrific. She really carries this movie as both her real self and her doppelganger, especially towards the end where both of them end up confronting each in other in a very clever way. I also enjoyed how the film decides to go with a traditional cinematic feel mixed in with web cam footage as we see what goes on with Lola's life when she's offline, especially when things get really out of hand later when her other friends and family start to notice her doppelganger online while Lola herself is in the same room with them. I enjoyed the psychological feel that this movie was going for to an extent. Throughout the film, Lola and we, as the audience, are trying to figure out what's causing this person to be on her live feed and the film builds upon a theme about identity and trust as there are other characters that we're introduced that are friends of Lola and I liked the realism that they were going for. This movie really showcases how live webcam shows work in this with the technology where we see various people chatting and sending tokens and other icons on the live chat and it does get intense in quite a few scenes that I won't go into detail without spoiling anything, but it made me feel unsettled.
Cons:
As much as I enjoyed the way that the film goes with the psychological level, I found the ending to be very underwhelming. I can't go into detail, but let's just say that the climax should've went more balls to the wall extreme instead of your typical standard ending that, while I get it's intent on what they were going for, they should've went all out with it instead and gave us a more proper closure because there were earlier scenes that seemed like they were foreshadowing an epic conclusion, but instead it falls way short.
Overall, I enjoyed this film, but because of that ending, I felt like it was a kick in the shin and dropped points for me.
Final Grade:
What were your thoughts on this film? Comment below and I'll see you on my next review.