Movie Review: 'Low Life' Highlights the Dark Side of YouTube Fame

Low Life (2022)

Directed by Tyler Michael James

Written by Hunter Milano, Noah Rotter

Starring Wes Dunlap, Lucas Neff, Lucy Urbano

Release Date August 26th, 2022

I'm a huge fan of true crime channels on YouTube. Creators and channels like Lazy Masquerade, Savox, The Internet Investigator, and Hanna the Horrible have given me endless hours of fascinating content on the macabre and terrifying side of true crime. Amidst that genre of channel is a sub-genre of videos where the creators detail the often horrifying yet totally real downfalls of other YouTubers. Whether they were child predators using their fame to lure victims or crazed narcissistic murderers, these stories carry an even greater fascination because so much is known and available about these people. The video evidence of their emotional and professional declines are available for the world to say on their very own channel.

The new to streaming thriller Low Life is like witnessing one of these YouTuber crime stories firsthand and as a fan of this content, the film captivated me. Low Life stars Wes Dunlap as Benny Jansen, a loud mouthed, motor mouthed YouTuber who specializes in catfishing and exposing child predators. Benny's efforts are noble, in theory, we should all surely want to see predators get taken down. However, as Benny uses these stories to make himself famous and to make money, the ethical and legal lines surrounding what he does become very blurry.

In fact, local law enforcement sees Benny as a liability and not a hero as he makes their job in collecting evidence for prosecution of these child predators, much much harder. Benny disagrees though he has nothing to back that up beyond his bravado. One person who believes in Benny is a long time teenage fan named Nicole (Lucy Urbano). Nicole has been following Benny's channel and dreams of being his sidekick in catching these predatory men. She is especially interested in getting Benny to take down her best friend's dad whom Nicole is convinced is a creep.

Nicole's bestie is Megan (Luna Montana) and Megan's dad is a teacher at their school, Jason (Lucas Neff). As this story unfolds, Benny has already made contact with Jason, acting as a teenage girl and is about to spring his trap. That is until Jason demands a nude photo before any further contact ensues. What Benny does will place him in some very hot water and lead to Jason actually coming to Benny's home on the promise that a teenage girl will be waiting for him. That, and Nicole can't stay away as she tries a little too hard to be helpful to Benny.

That's only the motivation for a much larger and darker plot that unfolds in Low Life. Director Tyler Michael James smartly lays out this story to play like a true crime in real time and I loved that approach. That said, the movie does take a few liberties, employs a couple of convenient elements along the way to try to be more than what it is. I would have preferred something a little smaller in score, a pair of characters who are basically fodder could be removed without losing much, but overall I still found myself wrapped up in Low Life.

Much of my involvement came from stars Wes Dunlap as Benny. Dunlap must have watched some of these dark side of YouTube videos that I love because he has the presentation of a sociopath who thinks he's doing the right thing down cold. The righteous sociopath is a type in this community and it's a terrific beat for an actor to play. Dunlap's sweaty, desperate, and electric performance is the highlight of Low Life. Dunlap drives the plot and as he grows more and more unhinged while still scheming for how everything can still work out in his favor is a lot of fun to watch.

Dunlap's manic Benny, captured on cellphone cameras, spy cameras and cleverly employed close-ups gives Low Life a wildly energetic life of it's own. I do still think there are elements that needed tightening up but thanks to Dunlap, as well as his uncomfortable chemistry with Lucy Urbano's naïve teenager, Low Life has a real charge, a pit of your stomach twisting ugliness and inevitability that drives an out of control, completely bonkers third act.

I have some reservations but, overall, I recommend Low Life. Low Life debuted on Streaming rental platforms on August 26th, 2022, You can find my archive of more than 20 years and nearly 2000 movie reviews at SeanattheMovies.blogspot.com. Follow me on Twitter at PodcastSean and follow the archive on Twitter at SeanattheMovies for regular updates from my massive archive of reviews. You can also hear me talk about movies on the Everyone's a Critic Movie Review podcast available on your favorite podcasting app.