Following up her debut Palo Alto, Gia Coppola brought Mainstream to the Venice Film Festival last fall. Led by Maya Hawke, Andrew Garfield, Nat Wolff, and Jason Schwartzman, the social media-obsessed satire follows a young woman (Hawke) who thinks she’s found a path to internet stardom when she starts making YouTube videos with a charismatic stranger (Garfield)––until the dark side of viral celebrity threatens to ruin them both. Ahead of an early May release from IFC Films, the first trailer has arrived today.
Rory O’Connor said in his review, “It can be easy being a Coppola but, with respect, it’s also difficult not to attribute Mainstream’s lack of self-awareness to some sort of cosseted upbringing. Nobody likes getting preached to––least of all when it comes from the Hollywood glitterati. Coppola is not the first filmmaker to inspect the lure of Internet celebrity nor is she the first to question the effect on young people’s mental health that all those dopamine hits might be having. Bo Burnham’s excellent Eighth Grade remains the high watermark, for the latter at least. In theory, she should be well-positioned for such a film. This is not it.”
See the trailer below via Vulture.
Mainstream opens in select theaters, on digital platforms and VOD on May 7.