Cam is a 2018 drama thriller about a cam girl who one day finds her personality taken over mysteriously by a doppelgänger.
Fast-paced and thrilling, Cam takes us for a whirl of a ride following Lola’s (Madeline Brewer) life, a cam girl who has three rules for keeping her job separate from her personal life, though is still hoping to climb the ranks to become the ‘top girl.’ This ambition, of course, pushes her to cross these boundaries and she soon realizes that someone has stolen her identity. This person looks exactly like her and mysteriously, is filming on her with the add-on bonus that there are no boundaries. Who is this person and how it happening?
We might not get all the answers at the end of the this clever film but the point doesn’t seem to be about resolution but more about the cautionary tale of the dangers of being a sex worker, and on a more obvious level, the dangers of our online presence and personality. It asks tough question about those invisible boundaries and what do we do when we lose ourselves beyond them.
Cam is all style, with many of the cam sessions flooded in neon pinks, reds, purples, and blues, blended in a umber shadowy background. This all keeps the cam girl environment seem light and fluffy, that is, until we see what Lola’s shows are all about, pushing her to the limit as she stages suicides, like slitting her throat, which seem intensely real. However, what is real and what is not?
Not everyone is a cam girl of course, yet almost everyone has some sort of online footprint and this is from where the true horror of Cam springs. The main reason why it works so well – other than its impressive visual style – is that Lola (her real name is Alice) is so effortlessly played by Brewer, who steals the show. She plays both personas and makes Alice feel incredibly genuine as she falls down the rabbit hole, losing control of herself as her personal and professional life slowly blend. She is consumed by her desperation and despair – along with frustration and fear – struggling to reclaim herself. It’s one crazy ride to say the least.
Directed by Daniel Goldhaber, Cam builds its mystery well, spinning increasingly out of control, just like Alice’s life, tapping into some truly horrific ideas about the lines we cross to keep growing our online presence. It comes to a purposefully abrupt end however, well after you’ve logged out, there remains a lingering feeling of dread.