âProfileâ is the terrorist thriller as IT session
By Mark Feeney Globe Staff,Updated May 12, 2021, 11:57 a.m.
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Valene Kane in "Profile."Courtesy of BAZELEVS and Focus Features
âProfileâ is based on a true story, from 2014, about an English reporter who masqueraded online as a Muslim convert to infiltrate ISIS. Thatâs straightforward enough.
Whatâs even more straightforward â except that at the same time it isnât at all straightforward â is how the film plays out. âProfileâ consists entirely of screen shots: Skype and FaceTime calls, Facebook messaging, the reporterâs desktop, Google searches, even, yes, a few cat videos (the demands of Web verisimilitude must be met). This is straightforward, because thatâs how the events happened: virtually. Itâs not straightforward, because seeing only small screens on a big screen is not how movies are normally viewed: cinematically.