'Lurker' excels at casual menace
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Often feeling like a mashup of "The Talented Mr. Ripley," "Ingrid Goes West" and "Nightcrawler, "Lurker" is too familiar to completely sing.
But it also gets under your skin and stays there.
Something is off from the start; when rising star singer Oliver (Archie Madekwe of the kinda similar “Saltburn”) returns to a trendy L.A clothing store, Matty (Theodore Pellerin of “Never Rarely Sometimes Always”) is ready with a particular song -- just the one that makes Oliver feel seen and eager to invite Matty, who says he doesn't know who Oliver is, to attend a show as a seemingly unbiased observer. Writer-director Alex Russell (a writer on “Dave,” “The Bear” and “Beef,” making his feature debut) wants us to know this is calculated, and as “Lurker” progresses and Oliver invites Matty into his inner circle as an unofficial videographer, there’s an awareness of just how deliberate everything in this world is, where pieces don’t have to be in harmony to fit together.
Opportunism in the entertainment industry shouldn’t be a new idea for anyone, and “Lurker” demands a suspension of disbelief a few too many times for comfort — conveniences the story needs but can’t entirely defend. Yet Russell has found a new way to approach old ideas about exploitation and stopping at nothing to get what you want. Within this crisp thriller is so much manipulation, a constant awareness of power, and the sort of competition that can breed creative success and interpersonal toxicity. In the right hands those ideas remain ruthless, and in Russell’s conception of access, of who gets it and who doesn’t, he gets it.
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