Lurker | The Deight Night Review
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| Lurker (2025, Alex Russell, Universal Pictures) |
In Alex Russell's directorial debut, Lurker, he tells a fable of the creative industries where, through lies and manipulation, retail employee Matthew (Théodore Pellerin), is brought into the friendship group of an up and coming musical artist, Oliver (Archie Madekwe). Oliver becomes impressed by Matthew's supposed devotion to his work and employs him to help make a documentary about his life. Though the closer Matthew gets to Oliver, the further he has to go to stay his friend and retain his share of the musician's growing fame.
It's clear from the offset what Lurker is trying to achieve. Like many a film about the glamourous world of film and music, it raises a distinctly black mirror up against these industries and shows the sometimes rotten core of their souls, revealing a world run by ego and wealth. Lurker shows the fickle nature of the music industry having its main character, the cunning but desperate Matthew, infiltrate the inner circle of an admittedly lower level singer simply through flattery and chance (and eventual blackmail and abuse) rather than any form of skill and experience. Matthew crawls his way to the top of artist Oliver's inner circle by feeding the musician's ego and constantly lauding his music that is clearly not to his taste, all the while stamping down on people surrounding Oliver who clearly really love his music or who actually have experience to help the singer in his career pursuits.
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| Lurker (2025, Alex Russell, Universal Pictures) |
Matthew's journey is Lurker's absolute strength and shows Russell's clear directorial and writing talent. There are several moments that are dialogue or exposition free, showing the audience the methods to Matthew's madness and all his thoughts leading to each decision he makes simply through pointing the camera in a certain way or showing looks on cast member's faces. It's a diabolical watch to see Matthew's clear manipulation get constantly rewarded with more and more responsibility and respect, but it's nevertheless indulgent viewing thanks to Théodore Pellerin's creepy and enthralling performance. It's hard to believe that Pellerin isn't Matthew in the way he completely embodies the role and steals every single scene he's handed. One particular scene in a recording booth between Pellerin's Matthew and Oliver is the film's absolute best, it highlights the film's thematic raison d'etre as well as Pellerin's complete mastery of the role he's been given.
While Lurker does a great job at exploring the lengths some ordinary people are willing to go to get a slice of fame and fortune and revels in the fickle and sycophantic nature of the creative industries, it doesn't quite explore what effect this has on the artists themselves. Throughout the film, you never get to fully know Oliver, there are glimpses into his personality and motivation here and there but it's never completely delved into, leaving a big gap where some real thematic depth could have been included. There's one scene where Oliver opens up to Matthew and he concludes the scene saying that Matthew is essentially his "best friend". He says this not long after them meeting and it speaks to the inherent loneliness that comes with fame and fortune, where one can never trust if people actually want a genuine connection or if they're just talking to you because of your work or money. There is a sense that Oliver wants a deeper friendship with Matthew, which could have added a sense of tragedy to his ultimately manipulative aims, but this is never fully expressed and as a result Oliver could have been replaced with any artist stereotype and doesn't feel like he's perfectly crafted for this story.
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| Lurker (2025, Alex Russell, Universal Pictures) |
Adding to Oliver's somewhat lack of depth is the actor cast to play him. After being one of the weaker elements of the otherwise brilliant Saltburn, Archie Madekwe brings Lurker down as well with a rather characterless performance. His Oliver is dull, capricious and without much of a sense of glamour. This may very well have been the point of the character, but it leads to a boring characterisation where in fact there was room for a much more exciting personality. The back and forth between Pellerin's almost overtly creepy Matthew and a singer based more on someone more obnoxious and bombastic would have resulted in a film with far more personality. Instead, Lurker loses an element of its stakes as you're not really given any reason to care about Madekwe, either as the film's villain or as the film's tragic victim.
Lurker is a gorgeously shot and well written debut that revels in its exploration of interesting themes of the costs of fame, as well as the depths of humanity faced with even a slither of God-like respect. Though it fails to fully explore the artist's perspective and doesn't give the film's music industry insert much of a personality in terms of writing or casting. As a result, the drama is carried by its lead performance which isn't quite enough to make Lurker a fully captivating cautionary tale.
★★★
