Review by Eric Hillis
Directed by: Uta Briesewitz
Starring: Lili Reinhart, Joel Fry, Daniela Melchior, Jeremy Ang Jones, Josh Whitehouse, Tim Plester, Christiane Paul
Like the recent cult Canadian thriller Red Rooms, Clickbait (or 'American Sweatshop', as it's titled in the US) is concerned with a young woman becoming obsessed with something awful she discovered on the internet. In Red Rooms the offending footage was buried deep in the dark web, whereas the video in question here is uploaded to a You-Tube-like video sharing platform and widely available on social media.
The video is discovered by Daisy (Lili Reinhart), a young woman who works as a content moderator for the platform concerned. Along with dozens of co-workers clinically lined up at sterile desks, Daisy spends her shifts watching videos that have been flagged for featuring content that breaks the platform's rules. Some are of a sexual nature while others are violent. Some combine both, like the clip Daisy comes across in which a woman tied to a table appears to be murdered by an unseen torturer.
Convinced that she has just witnessed a murder, Daisy asks her boss, Joy (Christiane Paul), to report it to the police. Joy refuses, fearing it will bring the company into disrepute, so Daisy approaches the police herself. This proves futile, as the cop who views the footage is unconvinced that it's real, and besides, if it didn't occur in the local jurisdiction it's out of his hands.
This raises the core problem with policing the internet. Social media platforms almost exist outside of nations, practically as their own nations, and various governments around the world are struggling as to how they can make it fit with their own distinct legal structures. What's considered fine in one country may be completely illegal elsewhere, so how does a tech company decide who it's going to keep happy? The truth is, clicks have become so valuable that tech companies are increasingly unwilling to take a stand to make their platforms safe. Joy represents this in how she goes out of her way to encourage her employees to push the boundaries of what they allow onto the platform.
Clickbait is most interesting when it stays within the walls of this company and examines its mechanics and the effects on its employees of watching disturbing footage for eight hours a day. Some have put up a cold defence, laughing off everything they see. Others have an occasional public freakout before getting back to their desk. Some simply can't take it any longer and walk out.
Director Uta Briesewitz's feature debut is less compelling when it follows Daisy on her quest to find the truth about the footage she can't get out of her head. It requires a serious level of suspension of disbelief to buy into the reveal that the video was filmed not just in Daisy's home country, but literally just down the road from her home. What are the odds? It's also made clear early on that it's simply a simulated murder made by a company that makes such videos on demand for paying customers. Daisy views the people who made the video as though they're actual murderers and devotes herself to ruining their lives, along with that of one of their customers. At this point anyone who believes in freedom of expression will turn against Daisy, as she's essentially a kink-shaming Gen-Z Mary Whitehouse who believes she should be the arbiter of what can be portrayed on screen.
Whether you can root for Daisy or not, Reinhart is very good in the role. She plays it with just the right amount of ambiguity to allow the viewer to decide if they're on her side. Perhaps what's most frustrating about Clickbait is the implication that there is far worse footage out there than the mocked up torture video over which Daisy obsesses. The most unsettling scene sees one of her co-workers break down as he watches a video of a dog being subjected to some unseen cruelty (the animal's cries will haunt you). I'd find it far easier to get behind Daisy's moral quest if she went after the person responsible for torturing dogs rather than someone simply catering to a fetish market, regardless of how disturbing that particular kink might be.
Clickbait is on UK/ROI VOD from January 19th.
