SXSW Review: King Kelly

Score:D

Director:Andrew Neel

Cast:Louisa Krause, Libby Woodbridge, Roderick Hill, Will Brill

Running Time:84 Minutes

Rated:NR

King Kelly follows one crazy day and night in the life of fame-seeking teen Kelly who strips online hoping to make a name for herself and posts videos of her every move online. After her ex steals her car, carrying narcotics she must deliver by a deadline, Kelly and her friend Jordan must recruit her biggest online fan to go on an all night chase involving drugs, sex, and violence to get her car back"¦all filmed on her iPhone camera.

An extreme take on our generation's obsession with Facebook, Youtube, and reality shows, King Kelly is a bold film that pushes lots of boundaries "“ some really effectively and others really uncomfortably.  Louisa Krause does a fantastic job as Kelly, as I still hate her just thinking about her character. She perfectly embodies every reality star that we love to hate as we can't stop watching their train wreck lives, only making them more famous. 

Neel does a fantastic job taking the risk of filming completely on a camera phone because I believed everything that was happening to this stupid, trashy girl as if I was watching old high school acquaintances' videos off of Facebook. He goes too far for my taste when he pushes the drug use as far as he did, but I went with direction expecting a film this aggressive with nudity, drugs, and violence to have an ending to matching the rest of the film's intensity. For me, it fell short, but I will never forget King Kelly, and there is something to be said for that. 

 

Facebooktwitterredditmail

About Danielle Bartz

Avatar

Leave a Reply