Like Me Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		3.5
Audio		5.0
Extras		3.0
Overall		3.5

Like Me Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Brian Orndorf March 25, 2018

With the release of “Ingrid Goes West” last summer, there’s already been a fairly accurate summary of social media and its capacity to distort lives, exposing dangerous levels of need and delusion. “Like Me” has the same interest in the potency of stranger celebration and condemnation, but writer/director Robert Mockler isn’t interested in playing straight with what little drama he offers here. “Like Me” is more of a modern art installation, going the abstract route with wild visuals and anxious editing, keeping Mockler busy orchestrating a 79-minute-long freak out. Your mileage may vary with the picture, as those particularly interested in an artful summary of personal ruin while find something to embrace here. It’s not for everyone, but what’s disappointing about the movie is that, at times, it’s only really for Mockler.

Kiya (Addison Timlin) is a woman on the move, relocating to motels around the area armed with an interest in the business of strangers, filming her encounters with a cell phone for posting on her YouTube-like page. After she threatens a convenience store clerk with a gun, recording the man’s mental breakdown when faced with death, Kiya finds her subscriptions skyrocketing, discovering other users debating the ethics of her video, with one powerful influencer, Burt (Ian Nelson), condemning her provocative postings. As Kiya contemplates what little remains in her life, she eventually lures motel manager Marshall (Larry Fessenden) into her room, recording their sexual experience, which involves the older man bound to a bed and force-fed junk food. While the video of his regurgitation makes the rounds, Kiya elects to keep Marshall around, with the pair getting to know each other as she drives to an unknown destination, feeling an existential burn.

Kiya is a mystery, and that’s how Mockler likes it. She’s on the move, but we don’t know where she’s from, and her motivations to destroy lives is on the vague side, possibly guided by her own terminal illness, freeing her conscience to do reckless stunts for public display. Kiya is stimulated by online fame, shocked by the response to her convenience store video, which showcases the young woman in a mask, threatening an already unhinged employee with a gun, eventually reaching a point where the frightened man urinates on himself. It’s the wetness that creates such a stir, giving Kiya internet fame, which inspires her to continue her undefined mission to interact with strangers in unusual ways. Mockler replicates the sensation of Kiya’s viral video ride, creating response clips that generate a flurry of opinion, with special attention placed on Burt, who offers hostile monologues intending to destroy a social media rival, feeding on her fame, offering only hate, including calls for Kiya to take her own life.

YouTube-style toxicity and stupidity is vividly rendered by Mockler, and the social media spread is the only clear idea in “Like Me,” zeroing in on Kiya’s interest in approval, which keeps her active. However, the helmer doesn’t go the traditional route with the work, eschewing drama for a sensorial immersion, transforming the material into shock therapy with “Tim & Eric”-style editorial contortion, squeezing every scene for maximum weirdness. “Like Me” is ambitious, but it’s also fatiguing, losing potency after ten minutes, making the remaining 70 more of a slog than an esoteric awakening. Still, the movie has its moments, including an obsession with food that’s rarely explored on film, watching Kiya engage in a gorging contest with a homeless man, and her meeting with Marshall, which is established as a sexual opportunity, turns into a junk food feast, with the seductress pouring treats into the submissive man’s mouth, triggering a sickly eruption that gives her the footage she’s truly after.

Like Me Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Explosive is a good way to describe the visual experience of "Like Me," and the AVC encoded image (1.85:1 aspect ratio) arrives with a range of quality that certainly matches the tone of the film. The story highlights Kiya's intimate relationship with her smartphone camera, and the production often switches to the digital POV, which is marked by heavy pixelation and lower resolution. These are inherent to the equipment used and the look of the picture. The traditional HD-shot footage looks bolder and brighter, but artifacts are present, with banding popping into view, and posturization periodic, limiting the full reach of the image. Delineation also struggles with heavier color grading, finding manipulated shots muddier, solidifying frame elements. When stabilized, colors are strong, handling the candy-colored, neon-dipped palette with authority, making more artful, periodically psychedelic extremes quite appealing, blasting with heavy reds and blues. Natural tones are preserved for skin quality and Kiya's real world immersion. Detail is satisfactory, though much of what's on display isn't appealing, but textures remain with gooey half-chewed food, vomit, and sickly facial particulars. Location visits are equally defined, picking up on stocked store shelves and urban touring, and costuming is fibrous.

Like Me Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

The 5.1 DTS-HD MA sound mix maintains an active presence to best explore the vivid track offered here. There's a full sense of purpose to be enjoyed, with surrounds showcasing some wild activity and spooky separation, creating an eerie attack of voices and hauntings during the picture's more determined trips into the psychological void. A circular experience is maintained throughout, backing up frontal dialogue exchanges, which emerge with care and precision, identifying stressed confessions and demented playtime. Emotional extremes are respectfully measured, never slipping into distortion. Scoring is aggressive, but intentionally so, adding an industrial pulse to the listening event, while cooler synth-laden stretches carry a sharp electronic sound. Low-end stays active with big beat, adding throb when necessary. Sound effects are quite direct, detailing squishy chewing and sharper weaponry. Transitions from tinny phone footage to fuller traditional footage is precise.

Like Me Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Making-Of Documentary (4:54, HD) is more of a trailer for a longer inspection of the "Like Me" production process. There's terrific stuff presented here, including a general sense of crew camaraderie and participation, detailed in video and still images. We also see parts of Addison Timlin's cell phone-shot diary, and spend time with Larry Fessenden, who jokes around between set-ups. Again, there are only glimpses of moments supplied here, which is a disappointment, as any overview on the creation of "Like Me" would be most welcome.

• Photo Gallery (7:29) presents BTS snaps from the shoot.

• And a SXSW Teaser Trailer (1:19, HD) and a Theatrical Trailer (1:51, HD) are included.

Like Me Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

"Like Me" eventually settles on Kiya's interest in the stories of others, keeping Marshall bound, drugged, and laying down her in back seat at she drives, turning the ride into a confessional for the pair, who get to know each other. Kiya is after some level of enrichment that's elusive, but her quest doesn't translate into a consistently compelling picture, with Mockler breaking up the journey with non-sequitur visuals. "Like Me" eventually gets to a point of catharsis (similar to one found in "Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back"), but whatever payoff was intended is muted by the end credits, which don't come soon enough. "Like Me" has ideas and vision, but the marriage between the two is never consummated, leaving an anxious feature with nowhere to go after its charged introduction.