TIFF 2021: Arthur Rambo
TIFF 2021Society is approaching a point where it has begun to learn that once something naughty is posted online or scandalous content lands on social media, it may have a lasting impact on one’s reputation. There is a certain power that exists in toxic posts, behaviours, or tweets from the Ghosts of Digital-Media Past. The influence of these is particularly strong when they resurface at a time in someone’s life just as he or she is on the cusp of celebrity or taking a very public position. Social media sweeps are the final ‘great vetting’ before working in a highly public role. When web-cam security footage surfaced of a repairman urinating in a client’s coffee mug during a service call, that repairman’s electoral bid to become a Canadian Member of Parliament ended rather abruptly. Questionable social media has led to all kinds of people not getting jobs, or apartments, or whatever due simply to digital evidence releasing skeletons from closets, digging up stupidity of yesteryear, and establishing backgrounds of shaky scruples.
Which leads us to Laurent Cantet’s latest film. Arthur Rambo is a decent, albeit shallow dive into that specific dynamic of legacy, maturity, and lessons learned after the resurfacing of old inflammatory tweets. Over an evening in the life Karim (played by Rabah Nait Oufella), we see the rise, admiration, and almost instant cancellation of a hotshot new celebrity author. The film opens with Karim spending an evening doing publicity engagements to promote his new book. He does a TV interview, mingles at a publisher’s party, and finds everyone kissing his up-trending butt. However, before the night is out, Karim is outed as the writer behind the social media pseudonym ‘Arthur Rambo’, a racist provocateur with plenty of old offensive tweets. Instantly, Karim’s career route to the summit of his success mountain promptly goes over a cliff, and he finds himself in freefall. He suddenly has to take crisis management meetings with partners, investors, and friends. Karim’s pseudonym-posted views may have been intended to stir debate and discussion, but whether his associates believe him or not, no one wants to be even remotely associated with the fallout of his hate-filled scandal – academic debate or not.
There’s a huge gap between sharing a cautionary tale and filming a story that means much at the human level. Arthur Rambo is perfectly fine, but its warning doesn’t echo much more than the story of the offensive James Gunn Tweets did. Cantet is issuing an obvious warning, but the audience just doesn’t have much vested in young Karim – his rise or his fall. Thus, Arthur Rambo starts and stops there. If anything, the opening act of the film makes for a much more interesting slice of life film. Hanging out with Karim as he makes connections with industry people and fans alike is a fun time amidst well-managed crowd scenes. The film even has a nice cinematography and atmosphere, capturing the beauty of modern sleek architecture, city lights, and nighttime cityscapes from the balconies of the entertainment industry’s power brokers. Michael Mann would be proud all the glass and skyline.
The look of the film gets more cramped and less privileged-looking as Karim falls from grace. He ends up spending more time in small apartments, on the street, and in tiny offices. Even though there’s a sense of gravity to the betrayal that the Tweet scandal lays onto his friends and family members, the message just doesn’t land with an oomph. If Arthur Rambo were a bit more layered – particularly in Karim’s character – it could have made for a more of an impact. Karim is not that interesting a character, even with his angry social-media history. It just doesn’t feel as if the audience will miss him once he’s eliminated by the vultures of cancel culture.
Arthur Rambo has a slick, posh opening; the rapid change of fortunes is interesting. Arthur Rambo even has slick pacing and a breezy runtime. However, the film mostly avoids the deeper assessment of how ideology creates expectations while it also forges human connection. Amid all of Karim’s contacts who were hurt by his long-ago Tweets, his younger brother actually identified with those dark messages and associated Karim’s success to his toxic online pseudonym. This is where Arthur Rambo dared to explore a little bit. What does it look like when your idol was really just a rabble-rousing poser? And when family is baked into that dynamic? Regrettably we don’t get enough into fleshing out why Karim’s hate posts resonated. There are angles buried into these various relationships which would have been interesting. For the most part, though, Arthur Rambo is preoccupied with the lesser, more blatant discussion of cancel culture alone and the protagonist’s disbelief in his loss of status.