DASHCAM DESERVES MORE RESPECT @TIFF2021

Director Rob Savage became quite the director sought upon during the pandemic. His first installment Host (2020) which was based on a Zoom prank gained noteriety during COVID-19. Instantly a cult classic, Rob Savage signed on to do three more films with Jason Blum’s Blumhouse. The company obviously saw that he was able to tap into a different market. That being those who enjoy found footage type films partnering up in an isolated, desolated lockdown landscape. A formula of succcess that would appear to divide the alt right from the alt left. But still remian intriguing to watch for any cinephile.

Savage’s second installment Dashcam makes it premiere under the Midnight Madness program during TIFF. It brings found footage films back into the discussion especially when it comes to horror during the pandemic. He brings slightly different to the table this time around. Savage sets that you are not rooting for the protagonist which most of the audience and critics alike weren’t.

Dashcam introduces Annie Harding who is a non chalant train wreck who is cringe worthy a lot of the time. She’s so bad that she is actually that good to attract so many followers to her show. It’s called “Bandcar: The Internet’s Number 1 Live Improvised Music Show Broadcast from a Moving Vehicle.” She streams it through shot her dashcam or her phone. Her followers’ comments as wordplay for her freestyles. The same beat is played over and over again sounding repetitive and mundane. At the end of the day, Annie Harding is just an amateur rapper who is high or just not all there. Maybe both.

She is vile through her rhymes making a lot of sexual references which would have the audience cover their ears. Most important is that Annie believes that the whole COVID-19 thing is a conspiracy. To her it does not exist for one bit. She says this through her rhymes, yells at people on the street and does not wear her mask indoors. Pretty much a young woman posing as a truther driving around and freestyling and telling you on the Gram that shit is fucked up but not real.

She does end up making a trip to London from Los Angeles. She meets us with one of her mates Stretch (Amar Chadha-Patel) and his liberal girlfriend (Jemma Moore). They end up kicking her out of the house once they find her MAGA hat. Annie ends up stealing Stretch’s car and goes on one of his DoorDash assignments which is actually humourous. But then Annie ends up at a restaurant where their operations are closed. An Irish woman pops up and introduces her to Angela who pleads with Annie to take her to the countryside. Of course Annie agrees and hauls Angela to the car where she soils herself. Annie still goes about her merry way. She has no concern about Angela’s wellbeing or that the turd in the back of the car is giving off a bad stench. That’s how she rolls.

When Stretch finds Annie and tries to regain his car back and clean the doo doo in the back of the car all hell breaks loose. All of sudden Angela becomes the monster of all monsters. She can be a demon, vampire, zombie, werewolf or alien all in one. She takes both Stretch and Annie for the ride of their life as they have to deal with this monster rather than staying at home and staying safe.

It is the irony between both Annie and Angela that has the audience swaying towards Angela’s side especially during the beginning stages of the pandemic. As it serves as the backdrop of this story, Angela reflects the person that is carrying the disease and Annie reflects the internet troller, conspiracy theorist that feels life should just continue on like it should.

What is interesting about Dashcam is Rob Savage’s social commentary of how we love losers like Annie Harding so much that we spend our last minutes paying attention to them. The pandemic background makes it that more pathetic but Savage rings the truth of it in this film. In a world where we love and idolize people who absolutely have no talent like Annie Harding, it is tough to hear critics of the film and her character say that they could not wait for her to die. If Annie Harding was a good samaritan, this film would not make the first few minutes. Dashcam is a film that makes the audience love to hate because they are in denial of humanity’s toxic behaviour.

There is much more than Annie Harding when it comes to hating the film. You may hate it because of its filming or when the camera shakes so often that it makes you dizzy. You’re itching to find answers where this Angela character came from and the powers she has. They leave the audience to speculate about Angela and her Ariana Grande tattoo.

But when she chases Annie, you’re hoping that one of them will die and the dashcam will stop because the film may be taking too much of your time. But the audience is just in denial. The audiene knows what they want but can’t bear witness to what they are seeing. Just like in Pulp Fiction where Jules quotes the book of Ezekial, Annie Harding is the tyranny and the rest of the world is the weak. It is difficult for the audience to accept this in Dashcam. But sometimes the truth hurts and nobody wants any part of that. God forbid. We did live through four years of Trump right?