Title: DASHCAM
Year: 2021
Director: Rob Savage
Midnight Madness is the film programme at Toronto International Film Festival that I absolutely adore. I love watching the weird, batshit insane films curator Peter Kuplowsky has cooked up for the years' festivities. Last year I-Fan Wang's Get the Hell Out & Roseanne Liang's Shadow in the Cloud left me in awe. This year it was DASHCAM's turn to surprise me.
DASHCAM is framed through am influencer's live stream. The influencer, named Annie, is an annoying MAGA hat wearing, anti-mask millennial who is destined for a comeuppance. During her stream she picks up a sickly elderly woman, which results in some high octane horror show.
A pandemic denier is the perfect horror movie victim in 2021. DASHCAM proved to be a fun ride because of the torment Annie is put through. She is intolerably annoying, like a lot of friends/family have turned out to be during this time. Do you sometimes feel like punching one of those anti-vax people in the hospital? Let this be your release.
The faux-live presentation, complete with comments that can be quite funny (I enjoyed the Smooth Criminal reference), combined with smart use of VFX and stunt work, make DASHCAM quite a well made film. There's not much in the way of story, but if you're down for manic hour of film then this is certainly your jam.
DASHCAM is a fun film that is a great stress reliever, especially if you're dealing with an alt-right person in your life. It may not be the most moving film at the festival, but this is pandemic fantasy fulfillment at its most chaotic. I'm glad I watched it.
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