LURKER

This wasn’t what I was expecting but I still dug it. About a third of the way in to Lurker I knew this wasn’t going to be the queer stalker movie that the trailer made it out to be. If anything this was sort of a combination of Almost Famous and Nightcrawler. I know these influences to be true because director Alex Russell admitted this…

the first 15 minutes of Lurker plays out like a toxic rendition of Almost Famous...

Almost Famous / Lurker

Matthew and Lou (Nightcrawler) have a lot of similarities as well...

Almost Famous / Lurker

I know some folks are getting tired of new movies constantly being collages of other movies but the tone and overall look of Lurker is very different from Almost Famous and Nightcrawler. 

I know this is a lazy comparison but the way Lurker handles obsession, voyeurism and one very specific scene in the desert towards the end of the movie - one might be reminded of Lynch's Lost Highway...

Lost Highway / Lurker

Lurker certainly has elements of traditional stalking and hints at queerness between the two main characters but this was really about the toxic relationship between a rising indie pop star and his entourage/hanger-oners. If anything, this is less about the way we obsess over celebrities (there’s plenty off movies that explore this), and more about the dangers of who you let in to your circle at a very pivotal and/or vulnerable time. In the film we follow a popular up & coming indie musician (“Oliver”) who forms a friendship with an amateur photographer (“Matthew”). Almost overnight, the fickle and flighty Oliver asks Matthew to be a part of his entourage as a documentarian/photographer without realizing that Matthew is quite unstable. As you can imagine, Matthew’s instability and Oliver’s flightless clash and their relationship turns psychologically abusive on both sides (I say both sides because while Matthew is certainly the unstable one, we soon learn that Oliver is also kind of jerk and inconsiderate to the people around him).

Lurker shows how easy it can be to infiltrate a rising young celebrity's entourage as long as you calculate each move and say the right things like Matthew. At first, Matthew doesn’t tell Oliver everything he wants to hear. Instead of being a “yes man”, Matthew is honest and offers seemingly honest criticism about Oliver’s music which makes him stand out from the rest of the “yes men” and vultures trying to latch on to his success. It should be noted that Oliver’s pre-existing entourage of yes-men and yes-women are also to blame for the events in the movie. Early on they see how unstable Matthew is and instead of warning Oliver, they say nothing and invite this weirdo in to the group.
Eventually Oliver starts to realize how “off” Matthew is but instead of completely cutting him off, they develop this weird on again/off again toxic friendship that continues after the credits role. The last 10-15 minutes might turn some folks off. I’m not completely sold on the ending myself.

In a year of unnecessarily long movies with 2-1/2 hour runtimes, it was nice to finally watch something that sticks the landing in under 100 minutes (I have no issue with long movies when the story calls for it but there’s no reason for movies like The Accountant 2 or Weapons to be over two hours long).