Sex sells. And according to writer and director Sam Levinson it is the fuel which feeds the fire of social media through the proliferation of selfies, sexting and revenge porn. Particularly by needy teenagers who having been force fed a diet of #perfect pouts and #ripped abs project an airbrushed public profile which is at odds with their private realities. Or as 18-year-old Lily Colson (Odessa Young) says in her opening narration, “No one wants the real you, so you stop telling the truth.”

And the battle between fact and fiction, Trump Tweets and Fake News, is at the heart of this kick-ass feminist thriller which moves from Unfriended to The Purge as false accusations about the identity of a hacker incites mass hysteria and mob violence. Hence the location of Salem, Massachusetts where the infamous witch trials as featured in Arthur Miller’s The Crucible rocked the nation.

First they came for the local mayor (Cullen Moss), but Lily did not speak out. In fact, she along with everyone else pissed themselves laughing as leaked footage of him masturbating in fishnets and tights while he trawled the web in search of same-sex hook-ups belied his wholesome family image and political campaign in support of Adam and Eve not Adam and Steve.

Then they came for the school principal (Colman Domingo), but again Lily did not speak out. In fact, she stood in the wings while angry protesters stormed the stage at fevered “lock him up” rallies in response to leaked images from his mobile which wrongfully suggested paedophilic tendencies. “They only want pieces and parts,” says Lily. “They want to pick and choose.”

Then they came for Lily and her BFFs – transgender Bex (Hari Nef) and fellow booty shakers Em (Abra) and Sarah (Suki Waterhouse) – but as the Lutheran pastor Martin Niemöller wrote in the final line of his Holocaust poem “there was no one left to speak out”. For a harmless hacker, tortured to testify by a grudge-bearing jock, wrongfully accused Lucy of leaking the personal data of thousands of residents.

To paraphrase L. P. Hartley: the internet is a foreign country; they do things differently there. Rumours and gossip are pedalled as incontrovertible facts. Word of mouse travels faster than word of mouth. Anonymity stirs armchair warriors into the online of fire. And at the click of a button, the many target and troll the few – regardless if they deserve it or not.

Tired of being objectified by insecure jocks plagued by toxic masculinity and misogynistic groupthink, Lucy and her BFFs exercise their right to bear arms and literally gun down their foes with deadpan satisfaction. It’s as subtle as Trump diplomacy and as one-sided as gang-rape (how boxer David Haye described his fight against Audley Harrison), but amid all the groin-thrusting and blood-spurting it’s a thrilling, amusing and thought-provoking drama about female empowerment.

Director: Sam Levinson
Writer: Sam Levinson
Stars: Odessa Young, Hari Nef, Suki Waterhouse
Peter Callaghan
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