There’s something remarkably assured about Alex Russell’s attention-demanding thriller Lurker, a buzzy Sundance debut that’s made with an unusual amount of self-awareness. The majority of this year’s first-time narrative films have been cursed with an overabundance of either in-your-face style or precariously stacked ideas (or, even worse, both) and a frantic need to show how much one can do, often showcasing how little can be done well.
But Russell, a TV writer whose credits include Beef and The Bear, is the rare freshman who knows exactly the right balance, often choosing less when others choose too much, his film a relatively simple yet extremely confident introduction. It’s a contemporary pop-culture riff on an obsessive psycho-thriller, the kind we were flooded with in the 90s in which an outlier enters the life of someone who has something they want, recalling Single White Female and The Talented Mr Ripley as well as something more recent and comedic like Ingrid Goes West. Russell takes this formula and extracts most, if not all, of the heightened genre elements to give us something a little more grounded, dialogue more rooted in reality and a canny realisation that murder isn’t always needed to create menace.
The lurker is Matthew (Théodore Pellerin), a twentysomething retail worker who insinuates himself into the inner circle of rising music star Oliver (Saltburn survivor Archie Madekwe) by pretending not to be a fawning superfan. Matthew, living with his grandmother and seemingly lacking a social life of his own, has to work hard to make his way deeper inside, cleaning dishes and putting up with insults from Oliver’s entourage of laddish yes men, a believably off-putting and juvenile world new to some of us. Many would tap out but Matthew persists, and his refusal to fall at the many hurdles laid out nabs him a job as unofficial documentarian. Much of Russell’s film then swerves among forms of video, as Matthew films more and more of Oliver’s life, but he avoids stylistic overkill and, for a film that revolves around people of this age, keeps plot-reliant on-screen texts and social media posts to a bare minimum.
Unlike, say, Ingrid in Ingrid Goes West or Tom in The Talented Mr Ripley, there’s nothing likable or tragic about Matthew (a tender scene of him dancing with his grandmother is quickly followed by him hilariously scolding her for talking while he’s on the phone). He’s a parasite, perfectly played by an uncomfortably on-point Pellerin, lacking the social ease and innate coolness that he sees around him, always lingering longer than he should, the kind of person who makes you want to leave a room as soon as they enter. His welcome is inevitably outstayed but Lurker isn’t just content with the well-trodden downfall of someone who is embraced and then rejected. It’s smarter than that, examining what a person would actually need to do to impress and then control someone so vulnerable yet so fickle, the learned portioning of tough love in a world where people are afraid to give it. What if Matthew is what Oliver needs? What would that say about the realities of being famous?
Russell is happy with light interrogation – his film is no grand social statement – and he’s focused more on his characters over what they represent. It’s also a pleasure and relief to see a film about pop culture ignore the obvious cascade of easy point-and-acknowledge referencing that plagues so many others and create its own credible world instead with music, crafted by Kenny Beats, that you never once doubt. As things go from bad to worse, it’s a captivatingly nasty descent as Matthew’s mask starts to slip, offering up the sort of clammy suspense that one hopes for from this territory without falling into the equally expected overwrought absurdity. The young cast are all superb, with Madekwe cleverly embodying that brand of alluring aloofness that so many celebrities have, never letting you know where you stand, keeping you on a knife’s edge instead. There’s also a great turn from Havana Rose Liu, doing a lot with a little, as a semi-assistant who pities then fears Matthew’s presence.
Lurker is a film of easy targets but Russell avoids obvious jabs. While there’s a cynicism that clearly comes from someone who has done his time in both Los Angeles and the industry, it’s ultimately about something more human, and more unsettling, than just Hollywood. There are, after all, lurkers everywhere.
Lurker is screening at the Sundance film festival and is seeking distribution
