Using the lens of fame, L.A.-based writer/director Alex Russell explores why the need to belong brings out the worst behavior in some men in his debut feature film “Lurker.” Life for Matthew, a retail worker, gets an unexpected boost when rising music artist Oliver comes into his store and ends up inviting him to come hang with him and his crew. Matthew’s initial encounters with them are understandably awkward since Oliver and his boys, not to mention Shai, the one woman in their crew who serves as gatekeeper and fixer, are a tight-knit group who were around him pre-fame. As Matthew eases into a role as Oliver’s videographer, they get into a rhythm. But when Oliver begins to pull away from Matthew, the thought of no longer being in their circle is something Matthew cannot bear — and goes to great lengths to avoid.
“Lurker” doesn’t include any suicide attempts or murders like some past projects, most notably the Donald Glover-produced limited TV series “Swarm.” It doesn’t even have any overt horror moments. Instead, it’s an interior meditation and, in some instances, a slow burn on the desperate need to belong and matter. Russell is not so much interested in what happens as he is in why it happens. Matthew lives with his grandmother and doesn’t seem to have many friends, save for his co-worker Jamie who later comes into his crosshairs. So he enters Oliver’s orbit as largely a loner. And, as Russell shows, that sense of loneliness can be overpowering. In Matthew’s case, it makes him cling onto his life with Oliver, even when their association with each other has clearly run its course.
Théodore Pellerin and Archie Madekwe (also one of the film’s producers), perhaps recognizable from their roles in “Franklin” on Apple TV+ and the film “Saltburn” respectively, play Matthew and Oliver well. Madekwe’s Oliver possesses an illuminating quality that makes it easy to believe him as an emerging music artist with superstar potential, especially with original music from Kenneth “Kenny Beats” Blume. As the awkward outcast Matthew, Pellerin infuses his character with a sense of loneliness and displacement that drives him to do things without hesitation even when he knows someone could be killed or seriously injured.
How underhandedly Matthew shifts the power dynamic in his relationship with Oliver is more than believable, especially in the social media era. Russell’s direction is extremely intimate. He and cinematographer Pat Scola maintain a hazy home video look and feel throughout the film that quietly shows Matthew’s subtle violations and aggressions. Russell’s script authentically grounds and translates his personal interactions with this dynamic through his many music industry friends in LA. Like many real-life music and entertainment scandals, nothing is ever obvious or loud, making both Matthew’s power grab and Oliver and his team’s failure to see it coming completely understandable.
In his director’s statement, Russell writes of wanting to tell “this story from the perspective of one of those hangers-on, trying so desperately to hang on…,” but he’s also quick to note that Matthew is not just pertinent to the music industry or entertainment at large. Instead, Russell sees Matthew as a portrait of today’s young men, and some can argue young white men in particular, who “draw a box around themselves and feel jealous or competitive with each other…”
Ultimately “Lurker” is a deep meditation on male self-worth in the vein of Joaquin Phoenix in the “Joker” franchise, only more realistic. While the film poses more questions than it does solutions, Russell succeeds in expanding awareness and conversation around male displacement and longing for belonging.