Revue ‘Swiped’: Lily James cannot make this superficial meeting application in “The social network”
Is this company my friend? Is my dating application feminist? Does this CEO really dispute the dominant power structures or only does it when it benefits? There is a version of “Swiped”, the new film on the creation of Tinder then Bumble, which is committed with these questions. Unfortunately, this is not this film.
If you also hoped for a job that has something really interesting to say about the current state of technology, meetings and how the first influence the second, you will have to continue to look. Although this film makes a gesture towards urgent problems, as misogyny is endemic to the modern technological industry, and is authentic in the way it seeks to talk about it in a more pleasant package in crowds, it never amounts to being more than one note. Despite the fact of wanting to be similar to that of David Fincher’s sustainable “social network”, Rachel Lee Goldenberg’s film simply has his heart in the right place and could use a significant upgrade in the way he performs everything he offers.
“Swiped” is a large biopic more than it is an incisive and sociologically motivated drama. To make things worse, it is that the person being profiled, Whitney Wolfe Herd (Lily James), is someone that the film seems reluctant to represent as defective in a way that cannot be resolved in a quick discourse. There is still something insignificant to see it go through the technological world dominated by men and to manage countless unworthiness to find success individually rather than to pull people with it, although it looks like a superficial lip service which is soon left by the way.
He then tries to look hard at the idea that Bumble is to open a conversation on creating meetings not only better for women, but really safer. The problem is that the conversation is always only with itself. Even when he throws in a conflict on your values when it is difficult towards the end, he is resolved so quickly that he never feels won. As we are taken by an enlightened montage flat afterwards with drops of forced needle to Gogo where we see how great everything ends up, as if this application summed up all the problems of the world, you start to watch an advertisement rather than a real film. An advertisement for what is a good question, but it is certainly not for this film. In fact, you especially have the feeling that the herd always sells us something about itself.
This is still where you can almost see a more complex and truthful “slipped” version in the way it explores the way people, even those who have intentions initially good, can abandon their principles when they serve them. Where he loses speed is when he plays more and more like an extensive hagiography of herd. The film decides that it is really large enough, rather than presenting a complicated and honest portrait of a mistaken person trying to do their best. He is categorically inspiring outside, but tasteless inside, reducing everything to feel like a disguised vanity project. For each moment, he holds Her’s feet over the fire, he turns off very much spark he could have desperately used to give a life to the film.
All of this is to say: “slipped”, we have to speak. I’m afraid things just don’t work. It’s not you, it’s me. I just don’t feel any kind of connection between us. I’m sure there is someone great there who will be swept away by your charms, but I’m just not one of them. Whatever you sell, it’s just not something I buy. However, I wish you good luck if you choose to get on the applications because, honestly, it’s always a nightmare.
“Swiped” will be available to broadcast on Hulu on September 19 in the United States
Read our whole cover of the Toronto Film Festival here.
