Film Review: '#RealityHigh'

Social media has changed a lot in the world—in both good and bad ways. The bad, for example, can be viewed through a childhood incident revolving around Dani Barnes (Nesta Cooper), whose friendship with Alexa Medina (played by Alicia Sanz in the present events) ends when she subjects Dani to a cruel prank that is spread online, upsetting Dani to the point of temporarily suspending her account.

In the present day, Dani is now an unpopular but ambitious high school student, with her closest friend coming in the form of Freddie Myers (Jake Borelli). Working towards getting a scholarship to her dream college and putting in volunteer hours at the animal shelter, Dani has basically retired from social media and tries to avoid her former friend, who has gone on to become something of a social media starlet (complete with her own web series bearing the film's title). But when Dani begins pursuing her crush on Cameron Drake (Keith Powers), Alexa's ex-boyfriend, things suddenly change when Alexa asks Dani to rekindle their past friendship. Surprised, Dani accepts and is soon pulled into Alexa's extravagant world of shopping sprees, exclusive parties, and non-stop selfies. But soon, Dani learns that Alexa's life isn't as amazing as it appear,-and must work to find herself to regain her friendships, future, and most of all, herself.

In a nutshell, the plot of #RealityHigh is something we've already seen done before. An ambitious but shy high school student somehow becomes involved with the popular crowd and becomes enamored with their seemingly idyllic world, only to find that it's all ultimately meaningless and fights to get back what they had before. The social media aspect aids another dimension to it, providing a fairly solid commentary on social media culture and how much unhealthy focus some put on cultivating an online persona to be adored by the masses.

Such is certainly the case with #RealityHigh's antagonist, coming in the form of the wealthy, privileged, and self-obsessed Alexa Medina. The film shows throughout its beginning that Alexa, for all of her social media fame and celebrity connections, doesn't appear to be liked by anyone on a genuine level, with some of her friends pointing out to Cameron how insincere and vain she is. But beneath her cruelty towards Dani and Cameron, brief moments of Alexa seem to show that her behavior (online and off) may be a mask for her insecurities about herself. With that in mind, claims she makes to Dani after a night of partying can cast a different light; was she only playing Dani or experiencing a rare moment of genuineness?

The rest of the cast also delivers. Nesta Cooper gives an empathetic portrayal of a shy teen swept up in the vapid surrealism of being in with the "cool kids" while Jake Borelli is entertaining as the goofy aspiring DJ Freddie. The supporting cast, which includes Kate Walsh as Dani's supportive and hopeless romantic boss, are also entertaining to watch, with Alexa's crew of equally vapid friends developing into authentic characters in a surprising twist on the tropes of "High School Mean Girl Clique Members". John Michael Higgins also makes a surprisingly humorous appearance as a school principal, with all of his appearances landing in terms of jokes.

#RealityHigh is not without fault; Freddie's unrequited crush on Dani is brought up and then abruptly dropped without any real resolution and the extravagance of the film's second act might not be appealing to all audiences. But overall, #RealityHigh is a fun little film to watch over a weekend, with surprising depth that makes it both entertaining AND engaging. Amongst Netflix's original teen films, #RealityHigh rises above its' potentially cringe-worthy title and becomes an enjoyable film for more than just Instagram-obsessed high school kids.

Score: 8 out of 10 "Likes" from people you don't even like.