Killer Ride: Viciously pointed "Spree" grabs attention with a lunatic Joe Keery behind wheel

Spree (2020)

92 min.

Release Date: August 14, 2020 (Digital & On Demand)

The terrifying normalization of rideshare services gets paired with Generation Z’s warped shortcut to social-media fame in director Eugene Kotlyarenko’s “Spree.” Doubly titled after a fictionalized Uber/Lyft-like rideshare service and the killing spree that ensues, this viciously pointed, attention-getting thriller is entirely shot with mounted GoPro cameras and iPhones as to not only heighten the verisimilitude but make audiences almost feel complicit. “Spree” may not have anything novel to say that other films before it have already tackled—2016’s “Nerve,” 2017’s “Tragedy Girls,” 2018’s "Like Me" and “Assassination Nation,” take your pick—but it does have an unapologetically devilish sense of humor, technical brio, and a gamely lunatic turn by Joe Keery.

A self-proclaimed influencer and content creator known as @KurtsWorld96, 23-year-old Angeleno Kurt Kunkle (Joe Keery) is more of a wannabe who rarely reaches double-digit views on his videos. Wanting nothing more than to earn instant-famous social media status like obnoxious prankster Bobby BaseCamp (Josh Ovalle), Kurt’s former babysitting charge, he uses his side hustle as a Spree driver to go viral. He fits his car with GoPro cameras to livestream every ride in an effort he calls #TheLesson, which begins with picking up his first passenger, a white supremacist on his way to give a speech. After giving the jerk a complimentary water bottle that Kurt has poisoned, it’s apparent there are no lines Kurt will not cross. Once Kurt feels he’s got the hang of his viral endeavor, he then finds a new obsession: stand-up comic and social-media influencer Jessie Adams (Sasheer Zamata).

Buzzing along at a kinetic 92 minutes, “Spree” is darkly entertaining as it is disturbing, albeit more for the shallow, inane state of the here and now than any explicit carnage. Writer-director Eugene Kotlyarenko and co-writer Gene McHugh do give Kurt Kunkle enough dimensions as a character who walks a razor-thin line between antihero and full-fledged villain. Whether he's a young psychopath or a damaged product of a toxic cyberworld where not documenting one’s every living, breathing moment means not existing at all, the viewer still remains involved in watching Kurt get away with murder. Like when Kurt takes out his second pick-up, a narcissistic real estate agent (Jessalyn Gilsig), he hopes Bobby will notice his livestream. Thinking the first two kills are fake and yawn-worthy, a not-too-impressed Bobby responds, “If a tree falls in the forest and there’s no one there to see it, like, does it even actually fall? No.” Initially, Kurt doesn’t receive the attention he so dearly craves at any cost, but no matter whether he comes out dead or alive, this Spree driver eventually gets what he wants and carves out an identity for himself.

Credibly remorseless and deluded as Kurt Kunkle, Joe Keery (2018’s “Slice”) obliterates his charismatic persona that of cool and popular Steve Harrington with swoon-worthy hair on Netflix’s “Stranger Things.” Acting socially awkward, even disturbed, and greasing up his hair, Keery chillingly throws himself completely into the role of a transparently amoral twentysomething who begins to feel unstoppable even as the danger of his plan increases. The film belongs to Keery as much as it does to former SNL cast member Sasheer Zamata (2018’s “I Feel Pretty”), who makes Jessie Adams whip-smart and resourceful, the perfect foil. One wishes the film made a little more use out of its supporting cast, many of whom become Kurt’s victims, but David Arquette is well-cast as Kurt’s washed-up deejay dad, and Mischa Barton, Frankie Grande and Lala Kent are all-too-convincing as a trio of socialites Kurt impresses and then murders with glee. The DNA of “Taxi Driver” and “American Psycho” might be all over “Spree,” but its blend of a cautionary one-crazy-night ride and up-to-the-minute social critique has a thrillingly dangerous kick all its own. Plus, it has Steve Harrington using a power drill on someone.

Grade: B