MOVIE:
Fake Famous
WHERE TO WATCH:
OUR RATING
3/5 Stars
WHAT IT'S ABOUT:
Explore the meaning of fame and influence in the digital age through an innovative social experiment in this HBO documentary. Three people with relatively small followings are turned into 'influencers' overnight.
WHAT WE THOUGHT:
What would you do to be famous? That's the focal question asked in the HBO documentary Fake Famous - now streaming on Showmax - as it dives into a 'social experiment' about what it takes to become a celebrity on social media.
An actor, fashion designer and real-estate assistant working in Los Angeles are selected from a casting call and are thrust into the sketchy industry of buying followers and engagement - all in an effort to make them famous almost overnight. Elaborate photoshoots help craft a luxurious lifestyle for their pages, taking the idea of 'fake it 'til you make it' to the extreme. The experiment takes all three down very different paths as they grapple with social media's psychological impact on society and on themselves.
It's directed by long-time technology reporter Nick Bilton, who's written for The New York Times and Vanity Fair, and it feels like he has a serious bone to pick with influencers. Beyond the social experiment, it's a scathing, sometimes condescending, commentary on the world of influencing and constantly questions the validity of their work.
In my travel writing days, I have spent many a work trip with influencers and let me tell you - they work non-stop, crafting their own photoshoots with almost no assistance and meticulously planning out their social media feed while negotiating paid partnerships. Influencing is just another reiteration of marketing, and while there are those influencers who might seem like they do nothing for money, it took a lot of work to get them there.
Fake Famous places such an emphasis on buying their followers that it's almost like they are saying that's how all influencers have done it, getting free stuff for an arbitrary number.
The one participant - Dominique, the actor - eventually ends up getting real followers on her account, but Bilton attributes it to people following her just because they think she's 'famous' rather than her actually having a vibrant personality that's appealing on social media and the fact that she puts effort into her feed.
As for the other participants, they might as well not have participated with their unwillingness to embrace the experiment fully and it raises some questions on the documentary's casting choices.
There's also a gaping hole of real influencers that could have meaningfully contributed to this one-sided conversation, and I do wonder if they even got permission to show their content that's peppered throughout the film as 'examples' of their frivolity.
While Fake Famous doesn't really highlight anything we don't already know about the deceitfulness of social media, it still does make some valid critiques about the issues of bots on social media platforms and why they can be destructive in a digital society. I believe Bilton's real goal was to push these social giants to monitor fake accounts and their removal on their platforms. The influencer world was just an easy target.
It also ends off strong when their experiment rolls into the coronavirus pandemic. Many influencers were rightfully lambasted for their tone-deaf posting of luxury and travel during a time when no one could go anywhere and are universally struggling financially. Here Dominique starts to curate her content more authentically, and they shine a focus on how those with big followings tried to make their followers smile in lockdown and shine a light on the good during this horrible time.
Fake Famous isn't a well-balanced commentary on the influencer world and social media's impact on our psyche (for this rather watch The Social Dilemma), but if you're just curious about what it's like to buy a following and craft a shallow social media identity, it does provide for a somewhat entertaining watch. Just take everything in with a pinch of salt.
WATCH THE TRAILER HERE: