LifeHack won’t cut your chore time in half, but it entertains

Because everything on the internet inevitably must face the twin reapers of irony poisoning and capitalistic corruption, lifehacks have evolved. They’ve graduated from at least mildly useful suggestions and occasionally surprisingly effective tips to something worse. Now you are far more likely to encounter deliberately labyrinthine tasks or dubious suggestions from “influencers” looking for another way to chase the vanishingly small prospect of a social media-fueled career. It is to Ronan Corrigan’s credit that his feature directorial debut, the “screenlife” thriller LifeHack, embodies all the disparate elements of the internet tip genre whose name it borrows.

The script, co-written by Corrigan and Hope Elliott Kemp, isn’t slow at 97 minutes. Still, it opens in a surprisingly unhurried fashion. Despite an aesthetic that matches its highly caffeinated (and more) quartet of online buddies, it keeps its plot on a tight leash. The constraints of screenlife films mean so much is “tell, not show,” and yet LifeHack never feels bogged down.

What impresses throughout is how well it evokes a sense of the internet just passed. Precisely capturing the feel of an era many aren’t even aware has been lost is no easy task. And yet, like the characterization, the film does capture 2018ish without screaming it from the rooftops. It creates a sense of disorientation at first, which Corrigan utilizes well. Roughly revealing the years of the film then centers the audience—just in time to unravel them in a different way. Finally, it runs headlong into paranoid thriller territory before its brief, pleasing if perhaps too pat, epilogue.

The group’s leader Kyle (Georgie Farmer), loud, motormouthed dork Sid (Roman Hayeck-Green), competent but hesitant Petey (James Scholz), and tragic Tumblr artist Alex (Yasmin Finney) aren’t exactly overflowing with depth. However, the movie rapidly sketches out recognizable personalities and a group hierarchy satisfactorily. That the cast looks so much the part helps immensely. Farmer, an incredibly handsome man in day-to-day life, affects the posture of a hungry-for-connection teen who nonetheless rejects in-person contact. A slightly overgrown, floppy haircut and solid acne makeup provide convincing camouflage. The other three perform variations on this trick too, giving the audience that “are they acting or is this just who they really are?” feeling. When things go sideways, as they inevitably must, viewers will likely be surprised by how well they know each member as Corrigan and Kemp slip the characterization in with confident subtlety.

Things do go pear-shaped thanks to two bastards. One is Kyle’s absentee father. An IT worker, his social media profile nevertheless paints him like a forgotten member of the tech billionaire class. When he flakes on hosting his son yet again, Kyle fixates on Don Heard (Charlie Creed-Miles), the kind of asshole Elon Musk likely imagines himself to be. A tech “genius” prone to bragging about the size of his crypto wallet on podcasts hosted by the likes of the wonderfully dismissively named “Joe Brogan,” our protagonist sees him as a piggy bank for the shattering. In doing so, he imagines himself finally impressing his crypto-obsessed papa. Less consciously, he’s also punishing a proxy version of that constantly disappointing parent. It’s the sort of “two birds with one stone” Freud would find very impressive.

The “team” achieves some success, wielding Don’s braggadocious online breadcrumbs and his wannabe influencer daughter, Lindsey (Jessica Reynolds), against the billionaire. They react like you’d expect a group of sheltered teens would: ridiculous purchases, drugs, clubs, and dreams of something deeper than Fortnite raiding party connections. But Don isn’t just some rich jerk high on his own supply. He has dark “friends” who aren’t especially amused by Discord badges or headset posturing.

Unfortunately, as good as LifeHack is at times, it doesn’t solve some of the fundamental issues of screenlife films. The claustrophobia the subgenre creates can too easily curdle into exasperation and boredom. It catches up to the movie during what should’ve been an especially energetic second act when the characters embrace their newfound wealth. Unable to escape the confines of computer, tablet, and phone screens and the occasional CCTV footage, it can only present that kind of out-of-control “fun” through montage and even faster cutting. What should feel both like a wild party and a dangerous drop off a cliff feels…busy. And little else. Thankfully, things get back to the feature’s strengths quickly, but the misstep can’t be forgotten. When the movie needs to be at its biggest, its most enveloping, it feels smallest.

Nonetheless, it manages something many screenlife films don’t attempt, never mind nail. It doesn’t just use the aesthetics of our increasingly screen-dependent world. It captures the how and why of it. LifeHack illustrates how screens, servers, and Wi-Fi can create a world where four isolated kids might find friendship and community, only to easily slip into criminality. The internet can be a place of escape, of kinship, and of dreaming. The film’s honest about the strange mix of anonymity and connection online life offers and the ways that approximation of real life makes consequences feel optional. Until, of course, they come screaming into focus.

LifeHack is surfing that information superhighway in select theatres now.

LifeHack Trailer: