A knuckle-chewing debut by Alex Russell, Lurker updates All About Eve for the Instagram era, looking on with a raised eyebrow as a nobody gets whisked up into the entourage of a big music star, finds he likes it and then hangs on for grim life when the beast tries to spit him out.
It’s a brilliant portrait both of needy, paranoid fan worship and of needy, paranoid stardom – both parties require constant reinforcement, though only one of them can be open about it.
Théodore Pellerin plays the nobody, a guy working in a clothes shop in LA when big star Oliver (Archie Madekwe) and crew bowl in one day to browse. Matthew’s fellow workers know exactly who Oliver is and go into ohmigod crouches. Not Matthew, who seems oblivious, though he does change the music to something Oliver might dig, a less well known Nile Rodgers tune. The two chat about the song, they click at some level, Oliver puts Matthew on the guest list for his show. He’s enthused by Matthew’s “clean pair of ears”.
Mattie – as Oliver is soon calling him – has soon become part of the entourage, rubbing along ingratiatingly with the others, gophering, washing up, eventually finding a more settled position in the pecking order when his skills with a camera are pressed into play.
Does Matthew know exactly who Oliver is the moment he steps into the shop? Russell isn’t letting on, though Pellerin’s portrayal of a man who is clever and constantly thinking ahead suggests he does. Whatever his initial status, Matthew is determined not to go back to being the guy in the clothes shop.
All About Eve was a sensation when it came out, netting 14 Oscar nominations, a record shared with Titanic. Though the 1950 film deserves all the praise heaped on it, Lurker goes about its business in a far grungier way – no gloss here. Instead, Russell’s handheld camera mimics Matthew’s febrile desperation and the chaotic day-to-day of being famous.
Stardom, in Russell’s reading of it, is a hellish tedium of endless distractions, with “friends” and other hangers-on always on hand to play a video game, do drugs, go swimming or whatever. Motives are always veiled, agendas are always being worked on. It’s a wonder that a music star actually makes any music at all. Massive discipline required, of which man-child Oliver has very little.
It’s only incidentally a story about Oliver, though Madekwe adeptly captures the Robbie Williams-esque capriciousness of the big star. Life on a whim. A career on the skids too, though that’s happening right on the edge of the story.
It’s the three act affair – Mattie as the clothes-shop guy, Mattie burrowing into Oliver’s entourage and making himself indispensable, Mattie fighting to hang on when the tide turns against him.
It is relentlessly anxiety-inducing, thanks in large part to Pellerin, a lanky Canadian who’s been around for about ten years, though this looks like being the role that will really push him up there. He did, incidentally, play the titular lead in a short called Incel in 2018 – Matthew is vey much in incel territory.
There is a lot of good acting here though – skilful filling out of roles that are sketches on the page. Like Sunny Suljic as Matthew’s friend Jamie, a potential rival for Oliver’s attention, the excellent Havana Rose Liu as Shai, the gatekeeper keeping Oliver’s life on the rails with clipboard precision, and Zack Fox as an old friend of Oliver, the one he’ll turn to when stuff needs sorting out.
Tense and almost relentlessly doom-laden, Russell’s film runs almost on pure anxiety and Pellerin gets the character of Matthew just right. This guy deserves to be slapped. But will he be?
Lurker – Watch it/buy it at Amazon
I am an Amazon affiliate
© Steve Morrissey 2025
