Internet Famous (2016)

Before I got into the YouTube world last year I never knew there was such a thing as being internet famous. I literally thought YouTube was a place for crazy viral videos that came up on Tosh.0, finding classic movies, and ripping music and watching music videos. Then I got into the world of YouTube vloggers and my life has not been the same since in so many great ways. Since getting into the YouTube world I have become familiar with the stereotypes of the different types of vloggers and other social media celebs. There are the cute baby videos and family vloggers, the people who create parody videos, the teenagers who create comedy skits and advice videos and appeal to younger teenagers, there still are cat videos, there are some people who want to create and act in something so they turn to the web, and a whole host of other kinds of vloggers and web celebs. All these kinds of vloggers and personalities are just like movies and actors and actors in traditional Hollywood.

Vlogging and traditional Hollywood are rife for parodying. Mel Brooks made an entire career parodying everything from history to Hitchcock films to Frankenstein. With so many different kinds of personalities and silly kinds of videos being uploaded, all the vloggers on YouTube are definitely not safe from being parodied at all. That is just what the movie Internet Famous does and in the funniest, cleverest ways.

The story focuses on a group of popular vloggers who are placed in a competition through a popular talk show simply called Chris! to get a show of their own. The vloggers include Thomas Butterman (Shane Dawson) has millions of views and fans through his pop song parodies, Danny Wasserman thinks he is a serious film maker even though his videos are just of his cat walking around the house, Amber Day thinks she is a serious comedian but only has views because of her barely there clothing and because she is very pretty, Dale Hand (Steve Greene) makes videos scaring the shit out of his one-year-old daughter Lucy, and Veronica Dekker had a video she made where she was younger doing some kind of wobbly walk and then someone put the video to music and the video became a viral success and she has not been able to be taken seriously in Hollywood because of it.

Veronica thinks this contest could give her the chance to be more than just the Wobbly Walk girl. Thomas just wants to be more famous than he is and thinks his “employees” will help him win, Dale really does not have too much of a reason for doing the show, Danny wants to be taken seriously as a film maker without his cat even though his cat is the whole reason for his success, and Amber really kind of has no idea what the hell is going on.

I am not really going to go too much detail with Internet Famous because there is so much going on. Just know it is hilarious, ridiculously silly, and so much fun to watch.

I first heard about Internet Famous because I watch the vlogger Nikki Limo. Limo is one of those YouTubers who is an actress. She has made skits and vlogs for a number of years now. She is hilarious and one of my favorite YouTubers. Limo is not in the movie but her fiancé, Steve Greene, plays Dale Hand and wrote the movie as well. Limo had been snapchatting the premiere and after I found out Greene wrote it I definitely had to see it. I also like Shane Dawson and knew he was in it as well. I did not know what to expect with the story of Internet Famous when I watched it. I was laughing at its silliness from the moment it began and by the end I loved it. If it had not been for Nikki Limo’s snapchat it would have taken me a while to watch Internet Famous, so I cannot thank Limo enough for snapchatting the premiere.

            While I found Internet Famous to be hilarious and enjoyable, I think it definitely helped that I am familiar with the YouTube vlogging culture (I am now a vlogger! Check out the link to my channel where I also review movies on the side bar). With that being said Internet Famous will be more fun to watch if you are familiar with the YouTube vlogging culture. 

Not Cool (2014)

        What kind of person were you in high school? Were you the quiet nerdy type who did pretty well? Were the crazy class idiot (not clown because in my experience the “class clown” was the class asshole idiot)? Were you the jock that did well and had perfect grades? Or were you like me who really did not fit in anywhere… or thinks they did not fit in with any clique? I hated high school. I did well in the subjects I enjoyed and suffered miserably with math and science. I hated a lot of the kids I went to school with because they were rich entitled assholes who thought they were so cool. Now I think half of them are rehab and wandering life aimlessly. Also a lot of them were cruel to other kids. I was not picked on his high school I was picked on in elementary school and middle school and it was horrible. I always wished I was one of those girls who could have shit said about her and just be totally cynical and have fantastic comebacks. I just always wished I could be that girl that most people would not want to mess with because they are always full of snark and a bit of hate for everything. I wish I could have been like the main character from the movie Not Cool.

            Tori did not have a good time in high school. She was given the nickname Tori the Whorie only because it rhymed. Everyone taunted her and was picked on by the popular kids at prom. Once high school was over and she went away to college Tori became this cynical girl who hated everything about being home and a girl who whenever she opened her mouth venom spewed out. Tori has been enjoying her first semester at college and is bummed she has to come home for Thanksgiving break. Her family completely embarrasses the shit out of her at the airport.

            Also home for Thanksgiving break is former cool high school kid Scott (Shane Dawson). His ridiculously weird obsessive girlfriend Heather comes to pick him but only to dump. Scott is upset that he got dumped.

            That night there is a party at someone’s house. Both Tori and Scott go to get away and have some fun with people they know. Somehow Tori and Scott wind up leaving together and they have sex in her truck. The next day is Thanksgiving and each spends time with their outrageously weird and awkward families. All day Scott cannot help but think about sex with Tori the night before. After dinner he goes to her house to talk about it. Tori is not happy at all to see Scott at the door but her mother is and invites him in.

            As I am hoping you can guess because it is such a cliché, Tori and Scott find they have a lot in common with feeling like outsiders and dealing with tough shit. The day after Thanksgiving they spend the entire day together going around the town. Tori tells Scott he needs to let loose so she has him do crazy things like walking around a grocery store and taking food and breaking into the high school’s gym at night to hang out. Then of course there is a bit of a misunderstanding and then Scott realizes he is a jerk and he does something to prove he likes Tori and to show her he is serious about changing.

            There is another storyline involving Scott’s sister Jeanie and his friend Joel. Joel likes Jeanie and he wants to impress her. He Facebook and social media stalks her to find what she likes and take her and do all the things she likes. That backfires on Joel but of course he and Jeanie wind up getting together… I think. I swear I watched the movie and paid attention but this part I forget how it ended.

            I was expecting not to like Not Cool. I just recently became a fan of Shane Dawson’s. When I was getting into the world of YouTube vlogging a few months ago Dawson was one of the first vloggers I had heard about. I had only seen him in collaboration videos with Grace Helbig and Mamrie Hart (which are totally hilarious definitely check those out). I had mentioned to a friend that I read his awesome book I Hate Myselfie and loved it (I even bought an autographed copy when I went to Book Con at the end of May. I did not get to meet Shane unfortunately. He was there on a different day). My friend said to keep it that way because his videos are not that great and she did not like his movie she tried to watch it and turned it off. But me being curious I had to watch Not Cool and see for myself. When it started I was hooked! I thought Not Cool was fucking hilarious and I was shocked. There were so many scenes where I was dying laughing that I legit scared my dog. The one scene I lost my shit laughing was when Scott and Tori were in the grocery store. I am not even going to spoil it for you, you can go watch the movie or just search on YouTube for the movie and there is a clip of it.

            Shane Dawson not only starred in the movie but he also directed it. He did a pretty damn good job. It may seem weird to say but you can see in his direction that he likes movies. Not many twenty-five year olds would have directed the way he did or at least that is how I feel about his direction.

            Not Cool, to me, is an odd mix of a teen movie and a more mature comedic movie. There are a lot of jokes that had me blushing and not believing they said certain things.  But I have not been in a teenager in ten years and a lot has changed since then. I am sure teenagers today know a lot more than they should especially if they watch certain YouTubers such as Shane Dawson. There are some typical teen movie clichés but for the most part Not Cool was fucking awesome. I actually paid attention from start to finish and loved it. If you have a good sense of humor and like really dumb things, do mind a lot of sex jokes, or like Shane Dawson and his sense of humor definitely check out Not Cool. You can watch it on Netflix and it is available to own on DVD.