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I’ve never had an Instagram account, but I can definitely sympathize with the loneliness that drives Ingrid Thorburn (Aubrey Plaza) to form manic parasocial relationships with online influencers in the biting dark comedy “Ingrid Goes West.” Most of my current social media activity is limited to Bluesky and Letterboxd, but even there, it’s easy to get caught up in the lives of popular personalities, to feel like you have a window into something genuine about who they are.The sympathetic inclination toward Ingrid is what makes “Ingrid Goes West” work as a complex character study and not just an exercise in mockery. Ingrid is clearly unhinged as she sets her sights on glamorous influencer Taylor Sloane (Elizabeth Olsen), but she’s also dealing with grief, isolation and anxiety, following a mental health crisis that lands her in a professional treatment facility. That crisis involves stomping into a wedding and pepper-spraying the bride in the face, but it’s still legitimately traumatic for Ingrid.No matter how dark “Ingrid Goes West” can get, it remains consistently stylish and funny, slyly satirizing social media obsessions that remain relevant nearly a decade after it was first released. Now streaming on Netflix, it’s the perfect movie for viewers to rediscover in our current age of constant online performativity.‘Ingrid Goes West’ is a bold showcase for Aubrey PlazaAlthough she had been in quite a few movies by the time “Ingrid Goes West” premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in 2017, Plaza was still best known for playing the sardonic April Ludgate on NBC sitcom “Parks and Recreation,” and “Ingrid Goes West” shows a welcome dark side to her persona that she further explored in movies like “Emily the Criminal” and “Black Bear” and on the FX series “Legion.” Ingrid is still a bit sardonic, but she’s also much more emotional than April, without the aloofness that came to define Plaza’s onscreen presence.
