Mainstream: This Film Really Lives upto its Name

Mainstream is...well, not exactly a good movie. But it’s one of those films that’s almost so bad it swings back around to being kinda good. If you’re going to watch it for anything, let it be Andrew Garfield, who’s giving 200% in every scene. He’s intense, he’s manic, and he’s genuinely great here—like he’s in a totally different (and better) movie than the rest of the cast. Then there’s Maya Hawke, who’s fine but just kind of fades into the background. You could say she’s more of a “plank” in a movie full of fireworks.

The movie’s got this wild energy and some memorable, off-the-wall scenes that I could see making it a cult classic someday. But right now, it’s more of a confused, pretentious morality tale that’s way too in love with itself. It’s like Mainstream wanted to say something big about influencer culture and internet fame, but somewhere along the line, it totally lost the plot.

Gia Coppola’s direction doesn’t really pull it all together, either. It’s a mess—complete with emoji-vomit graphics and random 8-bit music—but not the kind of mess that has a real point. There’s a tiny spark of understanding about how people in influencer culture can get emotionally tangled up and manipulated, but it never goes deep enough to hit home.

So, yeah, Mainstream has its moments and some pretty cool ideas, but it ultimately feels like watching a chaotic, structureless YouTube video that didn’t quite know what it wanted to be. A big shoutout to Andrew Garfield for putting his all into it, though—he deserves every bit of praise for carrying a film that can’t quite keep up with him.