Home | Movies By Year | Movies from 2017
Ingrid Goes West
Buy Ingrid Goes West now from AmazonFirst, read the Wikipedia article. Then, scroll down to see what other TopShelfReviews readers thought about the movie. And once you've experienced the movie, tell everyone what you thought about it.
Wikipedia article
'Ingrid Goes West' is a 2017 American black comedy drama film directed by Matt Spicer and written by Spicer and David Branson Smith. The film stars Aubrey Plaza, Elizabeth Olsen, Billy Magnussen, Wyatt Russell, Pom Klementieff, and O'Shea Jackson Jr., and follows a young woman who moves to Los Angeles in an effort to befriend her Instagram idol.
The film premiered in competition at the 2017 Sundance Film Festival, where it won the Waldo Salt Screenwriting Award. It had a limited release in the United States on August 11, 2017, by Neon, grossing $3 million. The film received positive reviews, with many praising the script, dark themes, humor, and performances.
Plot
Ingrid Thorburn is a mentally unstable young woman in Pennsylvania.
After crashing the wedding of Instagram influencer, Charlotte Buckwald, and pepper spraying her, Ingrid checks in to a recovery facility where she "writes" to Charlotte as if she knows her when, in reality, Charlotte commented on one of her pictures once and Ingrid has no way of getting letters to Charlotte.
After being released, Ingrid learns of a social media influencer named Taylor Sloane from a magazine article. She rents a house in Venice from Dan Pinto, an aspiring screenwriter, and gets a makeover in her style with money inherited from her recently deceased mother.
After running into Taylor at one of her favorite bookstores, Ingrid follows her to her house and kidnaps her dog, Rothko. After Taylor puts up "lost dog" posters in the neighborhood, Ingrid returns Rothko, meeting Taylor and her husband Ezra. Ingrid accepts their offer to stay for dinner. The next day, Dan lends Ingrid his truck to help Taylor move some items to her home in Joshua Tree, on the condition that she return that evening to take a part in a table read of his screenplay. She tells Taylor the truck is her boyfriend's. They stay out late and party, and on the way home Ingrid damages the truck while driving under the influence. She returns it the following morning to a furious Dan, who was forced to cancel his table read.
Ingrid's friendship with Taylor grows as they begin to regularly hang out at galleries, restaurants and shops. After a while, Ingrid arrives at Taylor and Ezra's house and meets Taylor's obnoxious brother Nicky, a recovering drug addict who is instantly rude to Ingrid. Taylor dismisses her previous plans with Ingrid to attend a party with Nicky, furthering Ingrid's disdain for him. Taylor and Nicky tease Ingrid about her "imaginary" boyfriend Dan, whom they've never met. They invite Ingrid to a party that weekend at fashion blogger Harley Chung's house and tell her to bring Dan.
Ingrid apologizes to Dan for damaging his truck, promising to reimburse him and take him out to dinner. Later that night, after bonding over their past losses, the two have sex and begin a relationship. Ingrid invites Dan to Harley's party and asks him to tell everyone he's her boyfriend. Once there, Ingrid becomes envious of Taylor and Harley's friendship. After a conversation with Ezra, Ingrid begins to realize that several aspects of Taylor's persona are fabricated. After noticing Ingrid enter Taylor's birthday as her phone password, Nicky steals the phone and finds several incriminating photographs that reveal her obsession with Taylor, and blackmails her for money. In retaliation, Ingrid pays a stranger to punch her in the face and tells Dan that Nicky did it. She begs him not to call the police for fear of what Nicky might do, and instead convinces him to kidnap and terrorize Nicky to keep him quiet. Nicky escapes his bindings and attacks Dan, leading Ingrid to stun Nicky with a crowbar. Ingrid rushes Dan to the hospital and leaves Nicky unconscious in the desert. Later on, Ingrid sees on Instagram that Taylor and Ezra went to Joshua Tree. Ingrid decides to drive and surprise them but no one is home. Ingrid tries to call Taylor, but Ezra answers and tells Ingrid that Nicky has told them what happened, that Taylor does not want to hear from Ingrid again, and that she would have been arrested if Nicky had not been trying to hide his own crimes.
Desperate, Ingrid moves into the small house next door to Taylor, using the remaining chunk of her inheritance. Unable to pay the bills, she eventually loses power at the house. After noticing a Halloween party at Taylor's house, she dons a bed sheet and wig and crashes the party to charge her phone. When discovered, Ingrid berates Nicky, Ezra, and Taylor. Taylor responds that because of her faade, the two were never truly friends, and suggests Ingrid needs professional help. Bereft, Ingrid retreats to her home surrounded by lit candles and records a video for her Instagram page, confessing her past deception before attempting suicide by overdosing on pills.
Ingrid survives after Dan sees the video and calls emergency services. She wakes in the hospital to find Dan waiting for her, and they rekindle their relationship. He gladly informs Ingrid that her video has gone viral, and thousands of strangers have responded to her hashtag #iamingrid to show support.
Cast
* Aubrey Plaza as Ingrid Thorburn, a mentally unstable woman with attachment issues, obsessed with social media.
* Elizabeth Olsen as Taylor Sloane, a popular, narcissistic social media influencer with whom Ingrid becomes obsessed.
* O'Shea Jackson Jr. as Daniel "Dan" Pinto, an aspiring screenwriter and Ingrid's landlord who falls in love with her.
* Wyatt Russell as Ezra O'Keefe, a painter and Taylor's husband.
* Billy Magnussen as Nicky Sloane, a recovering drug addict and Taylor's brother.
* Pom Klementieff as Harley Chung, a fashion blogger.
Production
Principal photography began on July 11, 2016 in Los Angeles and wrapped August 12, 2016 in Joshua Tree, California. A focal point of the film is "All My Life" by K-Ci & JoJo; initially this song was meant to be Seal's "Kiss from a Rose" (which would have tied into the Dan character's Batman obsession, as it's from the 'Batman Forever' soundtrack), but Seal's asking price for the song was higher than the production could afford. Spicer's sister recommended "All My Life" as a replacement.
Release
'Ingrid Goes West' had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 20, 2017. Shortly after, Neon acquired the North American distribution rights to the film. It was released on August 11, 2017.
Reception
Box office
Following several weeks in limited release, the film went wide on August 25, 2017, and grossed $3,019,057 from 647 theaters, an average of $1,208 per venue.Critical response
'Ingrid Goes West' garnered positive reviews from film critics. It holds approval rating on review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes, based on reviews, with an average score of . The website's critical consensus reads, "Led by strong performances from Aubrey Plaza and Elizabeth Olsen, 'Ingrid Goes West' delivers smart, topical humor underlined by timely social observations." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 71 out of 100, based on 39 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".Accolades
References
Buy Ingrid Goes West now from Amazon
<-- Return to movies from 2017