Cam (2018)
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Cam Movie Review
Cam is a 2018 horror thriller film directed by Daniel Goldhaber, written by Isa Mazzei and starring Madeline Brewer. It’s truly a terrific, underappreciated movie.
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“How is she number one??
She never even does anything“
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It follows a cam girl who is ambitious to get to the top of the website in terms of popularity, but is stuck at around 50th place. Eventually, she gets replaced by a girl who looks like her doppelganger and is locked out of her room and profile. This is by far one of the most, if not the most, original films that I have seen from the entire year. Literally, every single thing in this film is highly authentic and refreshing.
Of course, let’s first talk about the overall setting and themes. I am thrilled to finally see more and more movies deal with the internet and social networks etc. ‘Eighth Grade’ did that this same year wonderfully. We live most of our lives on the internet and it created whole new concepts and ways of life that need to be explored on the big screen and they are getting to it at last.
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This flick wonderfully explores the world of webcam modeling. Its high attention to detail is immensely impressive as they got every single detail from this industry owing to screenwriter Isa Mazzei’s previous job which was cam modeling. This is one great example of how a movie can be so much better if it is written by people who know what they’re talking about. It showcases the apparent competitiveness of the job and how, although on the surface a dream job for those open to it, it’s only deceptively simple and it actually involves a lot of creative thinking and planning for more diverse, constantly evolving shows.
That is one impressive aspect about this film. Another, even more important one, is that it becomes much more than just cam modeling and it actually is an admirably sophisticated take on the entire internet culture and way of life. Its prevailing mystery turned out to be a wonderful metaphor of internet identities and the clash between your true and your online persona, but most importantly of a computer virus which was so well done and all the more relatable to me as I have recently encountered a very resilient virus myself.
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Cam to me is much more of a techno thriller than a true horror. It somewhat disappointed me in that area as, despite the initial creepiness of its mysterious concept, it eventually lacked in truly creepy scenes. But in terms of the thriller genre, it more than succeeds and is actually another amazing thriller after ‘Searching’ from 2018. I personally wanted more of the family drama (the brother was too much brushed aside), but what they did was still very well done with her relationship with her mother being wonderful. Plus, I also really liked that police scene which was very realistic in a frustrating manner.
I have to talk about Madeline Brewer now. She’s fantastic and honestly a revelation for me. Her performance here is absolutely amazing given how the role is very complex and her character is so well written that I ended up really admiring her. The film is in an odd way rather feminist which I also appreciated as it was very subtly done, but the message was certainly still there.
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Cam is also beautifully shot with sumptuous colors of purple, pink and blue in particular, thus perfectly accompanying its setting and her job. The dialogue is also very strong and the direction is solid, but the screenplay is obviously where the movie shines the most. It’s another Netflix winner that needs to be seen by more people.
Cam succeeds much more as a techno thriller than as a horror film, but what a thriller this is! The film explores the world of webcam modeling through an impressive amount of detail, but more importantly it explores the overall internet wonderfully as its prevailing mystery can be thought of as a very clever metaphor on our different internet personas and also a computer virus which was highly relatable to me personally. The film is so well shot, Madeline Brewer killed it in a very difficult, intriguing role, its concept is phenomenal and Isa Mazzei’s amazing, highly sophisticated script is one of the greatest screenplays of the entire year. Cam needs to be seen by more people as it truly is one of the most purely original movies of 2018.
