DRAMA; 1hr 40min
STARRING: Théodore Pellerin, Archie Madekwe
In camera: Pellerin
“Just try to make yourself useful,” ascendant rocker Oliver’s savvy offsider (Havana Rose Liu) advises a bedazzled Matthew Morning (Pellerin) as he soaks up the endorphin rush of a gig. “If you wanna stick around.”
There’s snakes in the garden, Oliver (Madekwe) is singing, with more insight than he knows.
As the titular lurker of writer-director Alex Russell’s nerve-skewering probe into obsessive longing, Matty does indeed plan on sticking around, leech-like, no matter how hard he needs to latch on. Why wouldn’t he when Oliver is so aspirationally cool in the tossed-off way rock stars everywhere make it their business to be, his hedonistic bubble a chilled galaxy from Matty’s drab existence.
The two men meet when, courtesy of Matty’s quick thinking with the playing of a music track, Oliver takes a shine to him while browsing in the Los Angeles clothing store where Matty works. This random contact leads to a pass backstage, where Matty must brave the eagle eyes of Oliver’s homies. Having passed muster for the moment and knowing his way around a camera, he is anointed with the plum job of documentarian to the main man.
Nice work if you can get and keep it — a major If since nothing in this ephemeral scene is a done deal, with every player scrambling for their slice of the action. But that’s just too bad, bro, because Matty isn’t going anywhere. Acceptance has become his drug, the second-hand fame he attracts as a member of Oliver’s crew is a whole new level of validation and the adrenalised swirl of the scene is intoxicating, even if it can feel like a school of sharks.
Making his feature-film debut, Russell — he co-wrote and produced for TV series The Bear and Beef and is manifestly familiar with the dangers of fame — teeters on a wave of tension that bottoms out at a squirm-inducing depth. In Becoming Karl Lagerfeld ’s Pellerin, he has a dance partner purpose-built for the plunge: with his doe eyes and sly unshakability, Matty at his core is that most damaging of predators: the one with nothing to lose.
