Fantasia '18 Film Review - Cam

Alice aka. Lola (Madeline Brewer) is a cam girl. She works out of her home baring herself to her followers in her online room. She's partially nude, never fully explicit more selling allurement then the actual act. She has a regular group of followers that log into her room for her live shows. They give her tributes in the form of coins. As she accumulates more and larger tributes she heads up the popularity chart hovering near the top 50 in her goal to reach Baby Doll who is at 1. As her rank rises Lola does more daring acts until one day she wakes up to find herself locked out of her account. She's been replicated online, her room still going her follows still contributing as she watches her herself from the sidelines doing live shows with the rewards no longer going into her account.

Screenwriter Izza Mizzei, herself a former Cam girl pens a tale that is light on its feet while being heavy with dread of a person who's online presence has taken a life of it's own and beginning to close in on the originators' personal life. Camming can be lucrative, however the platform takes a good chunk of your earning and the job is full of pitfalls explaining your new found wealth, boundary breaching fans, friends, family and friends finding out, plus the real threat of identity theft played out to the extreme here. Director Daniel Goldhaber keeps the story moving highlighting online rivalries and the minimal effort required to locate private information online.

Madeline Brewer commits totally to the role of Lola. She lays herself bare to the camera, dives into the physicality of extreme stunts in her room. Brewer builds the suspense to a fever pitch as she is first horrified then eager to perform the darkest fantasies of her fans as the tributes double and triple for her to perform an act.  Pat Darrah is notable as Lola super fan| Tinkerboy. He's a tall sweaty out of work I.T. guy always in her chat room for live shows, looking to get into private chats a believable representation of an obsessive chat room member likely based on someone the screenwriter knows from the past. Look for Melora Walters as Madeline's hair salon owing mom Lynne. She's happy that her daughter has her own house, is purchasing upscale furniture and is thriving at her web based business.

Cam is a suspenseful thriller for the digital age. We've all experienced being locked out of an online account, disappointment with 24-hour technical support and the annoying can I help you with anything else after you concern has not been addressed. This is the type of boundary pushing subject matter Hitchcock would be exploring if directing today. Well written acted and shot seemingly on a micro-budget its a film I can highly recommend.

**** Out of 4.

Cam | Daniel Goldhaber | U.S.A. | 2018 | 94 Minutes.

Tags: Chat Room, Live Show, Whale, Webcam, Private Chat, Access Code, Locked Out, Suicide Show, Date Night.