Review of Cam (2018) by John M — 17 Jan 2019

Don't forget to tip. So this is about a camgirl who goes by the name of Lola (Madeline Brewer). She isn't at the top of her field, but she aspires to be. She is getting by and slowly rising the rankings only to awaken one day to find that someone has hacked her account and locked her out.

Oh, and did I mention that this someone looks and talks exactly like she does? Now I had only heard a couple of things about this, and for the most part, I watched this pretty cold, not really knowing what I was getting into.

Even for a Jason Blum production, you can't bring something with a subject matter as lurid as this to theaters, so it makes perfect sense for it to go straight to Netflix. I don't think that this is a must see, but it still has its moments.

I think there is room for improvement with this, but I was in it from start to finish. I didn't get tempted by distractions even though I was watching this late at night at home, and yes, that does have something to do with the subject matter.

Putting that aside for a moment, the hook to the story is interesting, and you want to see where they're going to go with it once it shifts from the first to second act. This is a weird community that attracts some very unstable and toxic men, so if they chose to Bandersnatch it, there could have been 50 different outcomes where this could end up.

That said, I feel like they weren't really sure how to conclude everything, and it feels like they wrote themselves into a corner. When this finally reached its climax, it isn't very satisfying.

If this was meant to be some sort of metaphor, they needed to do a better job of making that more clear, and if that was the case, it makes the final scene completely non-sensical. I only even bring that up because there is one conversation our protagonist has with her mother that hints at this ultimately being about something else, but then it completely abandons it.

If they managed to stick the landing, I would have probably rated this higher because I was engaged by all the twists and turns of this story about this slimy business. But sometimes an ending will just leave a bad taste in your mouth.

If this sounds like it is up your alley, it's perfectly watchable. I just would watch it with checked expectations to maximize your potential enjoyment.