Movie Breakdown: CAM (Noah)
Pre-Screening Stance:
This was one of the films I was most eagerly anticipating at Fantastic Fest, and of course, it was one of the films I was unable to see.
Post-Screening Ramble:
The effect of watching CAM on a small screen is a strange one. The film, about a cam girl – Lola (Madeline Brewer from The Handmaid’s Tale) – who wakes one morning to find that her onscreen persona has been stolen by an unknown (and unwanted) doppelganger, is a movie about screens within screens within screens. And as a viewer we are signing on to be another layer of screens. We are watching the main character trying to solve a mystery that’s happening solely on her own screen, which makes us unseen viewers into the cyber-soul of a fictional character. In real life Lola is a shy, nail-biting suburbanite that uses her online persona to exert some level of control over her own existence. Online she’s an object of affection, sure, but she’s also the director and content creator of her own television series, with adoring fans who throw “tokens” at her. As the mystery deepens as to who this double is, the viewer becomes an unintended voyeur to the part of Lola’s life she can’t control – her real life. Director Daniel Goldhaber and writer Isa Mazzei (a former cam girl herself) never sensationalize or disparage the concept of being a cam girl. There’s a level of grit, even scuzziness to the men who engage in the world of cam girls, but the women themselves are a community of professionals who may be selling fabricated existences, but they’re in full control of that aspect of it. Goldhaber and Mazzei have created a film that questions both sides of the online voyeuristic world: those who watch from a distance and those who make connections from equally far away. It’s a smart film that crafts a realistic portrayal of modern sex work, managing to critique the idea of screen life without ever judging it.
One Last Thought:
This is a cerebral picture, but Goldhaber still wiggles some toes in the genre sandbox. Case in point: the physical effects in the final scene – cringe-worthy.
