‘Vintage Violence’ Puts Cole Sprouse Behind the Live-Stream
Variety's review places “Vintage Violence” in the line Eugene Kotlyarenko has built across his career: cinephilic knowledge repurposed into hyper-online, of-the-moment provocation. Live-streaming is key here, much as it was in his best-known film, 2020's “Spree.” The film opens on Carter, an obnoxious social media celebrity played by Cole Sprouse, already mid-stream. A director who keeps returning to the feed as a setting is making a bet — that the way people perform online now is strange enough to carry a feature rather than a sketch.
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Live-streaming has a short half-life as satire. A film pinned to the current vocabulary of the feed risks looking dated the moment the platform changes.
That may be the trade Kotlyarenko is deliberately making. Of-the-moment provocation buys recognition now and durability later, and he seems to want the former.