Jawline 2019

Jawline 2019

Jawline 2019
1h 39min | Documentary | 23 August 2019 (USA)

Storyline:

The film follows 16-year-old Austyn Tester, a rising star in the live-broadcast ecosystem who built his following on wide-eyed optimism and teen girl lust, as he tries to escape a dead-end life in rural Tennessee.

User review:

Visually, this documentary is well-done, and the creators should be proud of that. However, the group of Los Angeles-based influencers they chose to focus on are extremely problematic. Luckily, we can see some of that in the film, but it doesn’t show the whole story.

In Tennessee, the film focuses on Austyn, who is sweet and means well. He has big dreams. His dream is to be one of these influencers in L.A. because he has a false expectation of what that life is truly like. His story is sympathetic, for sure. His is definitely a small fish. The viewer hopes he can make his dreams come true, but deep down knows that it most likely won’t happen.

Meanwhile, in Los Angeles, we meet Manager Michael “Segway CEO” Weist, a fast-talking scam artist whose immaturity shines immensely. He is not connected to Austyn at all, even though Michael actually comes from Tennessee himself. Michael in unlikeable. Almost every moment that we see him on-screen is cringe-inducing. He loves to brag about how much money he makes but foolishly spends it on material items that are so cliche that he comes off as a total poser.

We see him unable to wrangle his clients, nagging them about their vocabulary, complaining about how they are acting in front of the documentary film crew, or bragging about how he is the only social media influencer manager that can do this or that. He also shows us that he doesn’t respect the fans that carry these influencers careers. At one point, Michael condescendingly reminds us that these fans are not the popular girls, the cheerleaders, the ones with money. He thinks they are suckers. His clients are just assets.

Michael isn’t good at his job, and when he gets overwhelmed, his age and inexperience shows. He has multiple hissy-fits in the film and is clearly putting on an act for the cameras. Meta: The catastrophes he has created after this film was shot are massive. He is now a laughing stock in the social media universe. He is literally now a meme.

Unfortunately, the film ends with Michael filing a $5M lawsuit against a couple former clients, one of which is highly problematic as well. That case never went to court. And Michael gets to tell his side of the story without the others having the same opportunity. This should not have been in the film at all. It’s unfortunate, with all of the social media “squads” out there, that the director chose this hack to follow around.

One of the clients Michael is shown managing is Bryce Hall. Meta: He once urinated off of an indoor balcony inside the Marriott during one of these events and was almost arrested. He was banned from the major industry events (PlayList Live, Vidcon) and there are plenty of instances of him fighting other influencers and subsequent apology videos. Recently, he beat up his best friend to the point of him needing hospitalization.

Back to the film. The slow motion vignettes throughout the film are beautiful and there is a refreshing artistic look overall. Editing is top-notch. But that is not enough to make this one worthwhile to watch. The story is lacking. Austyn only goes on one tour and when he returns, he is unmotivated and starts to lose the progress he had previously made. This seems to be the end of the story. He doesn’t go far enough for this film to be interesting before all hope for him is squelched.

In L.A., we don’t get to know the influencers (only the scheming manager) and we don’t see them succeed or fail – just complain. Actually, the film barely takes you into the world of being an influencer at all. It’s a day in the life of a hopeful teen who is down on his luck, even lazy. And a day in the life of spoiled, privileged and immature brats who could never survive a 9-5 job.

But there are a lot of cute kittens.

That being said, I look forward to seeing what this filmmaker does next.

Director: Liza Mandelup
Stars: Nick Champa, Austyn Tester, Michael Weist
Country: USA
Language: English
Release Date: 23 August 2019 (USA)
Also Known As: Jawline
Filming Locations: Tennessee, USA

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt8499102/