Spree will make you terrified of Uber drivers: Sundance review – New York Post

PARK CITY, Utah Next time youre annoyed with your Uber driver for yapping too much, or because hes using Axe Body Spray like its an ax to your senses, be grateful hes not Kurt Kunkle.

In the strange new horror-comedy-cautionary-tale, Spree, which premiered Friday at the Sundance Film Festival, Kurt (Joe Keery), a caffeinated ride-share driver, turns into a serial killer on one doomed day during his shift.

Its not your average slasher flick, though. What sets director Eugene Kotlyarenkos film apart from that pantheon of scary movies is that Kurts not murdering manifesto-style to grab the attention of a girl, and hes not an escaped convict from a maximum-security prison. His dad (David Arquette) is nice enough.

Kurt just wants social media likes.

Follow @KurtsWorld96 on Instagram, YouTube and Snapchat, and youll discover a demented man with the hyped-up energy of 1,000 Red Bulls stabbing and poisoning backseat passengers like hes the Demon Driver of Fleet Street. He calls this attempt at online stardom #TheLesson.

Maybe more off-kilter than the plot is the non-traditional way Kotlyarenko shot his movie. Kurt has affixed cameras to the corners of his car to livestream his raging road trip. Thus, we view the film as a user would an Instagram story or Facebook Live: manic, shaky and often in portrait mode.

Like with any social media post, we also see the demented comments of a generation numb to tragedy scrolling on the side of the screen. Looks fake, one says removedly, encouraging Kurt to go even harder.

One of his passengers is a comedian named Jessie Adams (Sasheer Zamata), who teases the creep relentlessly. After Kurt drops her off, he becomes obsessed with the woman and stalks her to an LA comedy club. The ending isnt pretty.

Kurts social media obsession and stalker behavior brought to mind the underrated Aubrey Plaza film Ingrid Goes West, about a 20-something who derives her entire self-worth from social media, and lets her wobbly life spiral out of control because of it. Expect more movies about how Instagram will cause humanitys ultimate demise.

Now that youre nauseous, youll be surprised to find out that all of this is pretty funny. Keery, whos proved his comic timing as Steve Harrington on Stranger Things, gets laughs by speaking at a rapid pace, and delivering asides and glances to various cameras like hes Bea Arthur on The Golden Girls. Hell make a capable lead in something more mainstream soon.

And therein lies the rub. I havent the slightest idea where this movie could possibly play, besides another film festival. Its part of Sundances Next series, which implies a certain amount of innovation, but this is a style orgy. And orgies arent for everybody. It will be a stretch for many audiences and even streaming platforms. However, I could see Spree being a hit with college and high school kids down the line.

Check it out if you can, if weirdness is your thing. And never accept an Uber drivers bottled water ever again.

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Spree will make you terrified of Uber drivers: Sundance review - New York Post

Reviewed and Recommended by Erik Baquero