Follow Me (aka No Escape)
Director: Will Wernick
Writer: Will Wernick
Cast: Keegan Allen, Holland Roden, Denzel Whitaker, Siya, George Janko, Ronen Rubinstein, Emilia Ares, Pasha D. Lychnikoff
Seen on: 31.8.2020

Plot:
Cole (Keegan Allen) has built a large social media following with his thrill-seeking stunts. Now that he is celebrating ten years of this, a certain tiredness has settled in and he doubts that he can still find things that really thrill him. That’s why his girlfriend Erin (Holland Roden) and his friends Thomas (Denzel Whitaker), Dam (Siya) and Dash (George Janko) have promised him the experience of a lifetime: a secret escape room in Russia. Cole is underwhelmed at first – but it soon turns out that the escape room might give him more than he bargained for.

I didn’t expect much from Follow Me and it didn’t deliver much, so I guess that’s alright. The ending does carry a little more punch than I expected, but that’s about it.

I will freely admit that I mostly watched Follow Me for Holland Roden – and if that is your reason for watching it, too, be warned: she might be front and center on the poster, but it feels like she is barely in the film at all. Instead the film is firmly centered on Keegan Allen and he does a fine job, but he isn’t her.

Cole is not only the center of the film, he is also the most well-rounded character. I was pretty impressed that the film manages to show the effect his social media career had on him and that it sometimes turns him pretty unlikeable, but overall, he aquits himself well enough – his unlikeable publicity side isn’t all that is to him.

This, as well as the condemnation of prank culture are both things that I can appreciate. At the same time, though, the film remains pretty shallow with its message and there’s not a whole lot of insight here. Not that this is something that I’d expect from a film of its kind, but that also means that the film’s messages just aren’t enough to move the film past its predictable plot (that it thinks ends with a surprise) or it’s mostly rather one-note supporting characters that I just didn’t care enough about.

I have definitely seen worse films than Follow Me, no doubt about it. But I have also seen many that were better. Altogether, it is decent and entertaining, but doesn’t really impress or stay with you in the long run.

Summarizing: Okay.