There’s a lot of chatter about directors out there, how most of the greats only want to make period pieces because cell phones and the Internet have destroyed a lot of the key parts of making a great movie, especially thrillers and heists. That could be true, but movies like Unfriended, Searching, and Missing show that if you have a great idea, you can build a great story around anything, even modern technology. LifeHack is the latest showcase of what still is possible, as Ronan Corrigan gives us a movie through our computers, just in a new genre. And with a nice flare of a crypto bro villain, pretty modern bad guy if you ask me!
The crypto bro is Don Heard (Charlie Creed-Miles), a man who talks the talk and walks the walk, inspiring all sorts of gullible acolytes. One such sucker is the father of Kyle (Georgie Farmer), who compensates for a dadless life by going online searching for friends. He becomes part of a quad, including camera hacker Sid (Roman Hayeck-Green), gamer buddy Petey (James Schloz), and improviser/lost soul Alex (Yasmin Finney). The foursome go online and act like Internet superheroes, taking down online scammers and reporting them to the FBI. But Kyle’s got his sights set on Don Heard, and slowly convinces his 3 friends to help find a way into his crypto wallet, through Don’s daughter, social media influencer Lindsey (Jessica Reynolds).
So yeah, LifeHack is the Zoom heist movie. Ronan Corrigan gives us 3 heists actually. The first one efficiently sets up how good the quad is and what their roles are taking down a pig butcher. Then we get to the first big one, where Corrigan channels classic heist tropes through these mini screens and searches. Kyle is the Danny Ocean here, planning intricately how to use Lindsey’s online persona to weasel into Don’s accounts. Like all heist movies, the planning parts are the best, as Alex shows off her impersonation skills, Sid gives us the visuals and sound we (and the director, hehe) need to know what’s going on. And Petey provides the algorithms the team uses to find information quickly as Don and Linsey’s passwords and accounts get hacked into. What’s so fun about LifeHack is how possible it all feels, as a naive ambitious group of kids use innovative but real world uncomplicated ways to get some of that Bit and Doge coin savings. Corrigan plays around with the setups too. Sometimes we feel like an Ocean’s movie. And sometimes we drift into Rear Window territory as parts of the team realize their friends are in danger, and there’s nothing we can do about it, or even sometimes Jason Bourne like spy thriller stuff, uncovering, unshockingly, sinister deeds that Don Heard may be hiding in his past.
The hard part about LifeHack and movies like it is building characters through now two screens: a movie screen and a zoom screen. The small cast makes this doable, giving us just enough time to at least understand these 4 and what makes them tick. There’s a profound sadness under all of them, wanting love but never getting close enough to experience it in person. Kyle’s clearly motivated by daddy issues, so blinded by trying to make an impression on his absent father he fails to see Alex is where his real time should be going. I wish they gave Alex more to do: there’s something very sweet underneath her character that gives the movie some necessary humanity. The two of them get to do the gimmick of writing down a text back and then deleting it, typing something else, a staple of these movies now. Sid is the comedy sidekick, and poor Petey is the “wet blanket” who knows all of this is a bad idea, but doesn’t have the will power to betray his only solitude in his oppressive life. Jessica Reynolds has a blast as well, playing a shapeshifting nepo baby, another nice modern touch.
LifeHack worst well enough that I found myself really caught up in the attempted takedown of a crypto billionaire. Ronan Corrigan’s movie so wonderfully embraces its modernity, the big emotional climax takes place during a game of Rust. For those who’ve never played, usually that game is filled with weirdo white supremacists who immediately shout the n word at your before they murder you. That’s probably the most unrealistic part of this movie honestly. Rust, how much did you pay to get LifeHack made for better PR?