MAINSTREAM, Manic Pixie Dream Boys, and Toxic Creativity
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Social media is ephemeral and everlasting. A beginning and an end. Constellations and a black hole. It is where we escape to find inspiration and meaning and actuality, but can just as soon drown in a tide of manipulation. To create an account is to shake hands with the devil. An accordance of sorts; entering uncharted territory, where boundaries bend and curve and disappear entirely. Where values fly to the wind. Some catching hold of genius, others dissolved into nothing.
Gia Coppola gets the allure. Her new film,
Mainstream, is about the great storm that is social media fame. And how creative pursuits malign once they enter that bargain. The movie stars Maya Hawke as Frankie, a wannabe creator trapped in the amber of modern-day Los Angeles. She wants to make things and say things and know things, but she isn’t sure what. Instead, she spends her days as a bartender at a magic-themed lounge bar, where she pals around with her coworker Jake (Nat Wolff), who is secretly in love with her. Sometimes she’s recruited into magic acts where she dresses as an oversized baby. It’s as grim as it sounds.