Low Life (2022)
Directed by Tyler Michael James
Written by Hunter Milano, Noah Rotter
Starring Wes Dunlap, Lucas Neff, Lucy Urbano
Release Date August 26th, 2022
I'm a huge fan of true crime channels on YouTube. Creators and channels like Lazy Masquerade, Savox, The Internet Investigator, and Hanna the Horrible have given me endless hours of fascinating content on the macabre and terrifying side of true crime. Amidst that genre of channel is a sub-genre of videos where the creators detail the often horrifying yet totally real downfalls of other YouTubers. Whether they were child predators using their fame to lure victims or crazed narcissistic murderers, these stories carry an even greater fascination because so much is known and available about these people. The video evidence of their emotional and professional declines are available for the world to say on their very own channel.
The new to streaming thriller Low Life is like witnessing one of these YouTuber crime stories firsthand and as a fan of this content, the film captivated me. Low Life stars Wes Dunlap as Benny Jansen, a loud mouthed, motor mouthed YouTuber who specializes in catfishing and exposing child predators. Benny's efforts are noble, in theory, we should all surely want to see predators get taken down. However, as Benny uses these stories to make himself famous and to make money, the ethical and legal lines surrounding what he does become very blurry.
Find my full length review at Geeks.Media, linked here.