Sociable

January 1, 2018
Harrington (Penelope) gleefully skewers digital media and postgraduate working blues with this dark satire of self-absorbed millennials trying to remake journalism and romance. Her cyber coming-of-age tale revolves around Elinor and her college boyfriend, Mike, who live together in a cramped New York City apartment with no stove and a foam pad for a bed while they work toward their dreams of writing about important issues. Mike, who has a leg up—his parents pay his rent and his mom is a famous essayist—scores a writing job at a snarky website. Meanwhile, Elinor, making money as a nanny, winds up at a struggling rival news site, Journalism.ly, where she’s hired to pump up its audience as “viral trends editor” and proves to be a natural. While Elinor refines the art of clickbait, her relationships with Mike and her best friend fall apart. After relieving her heartache with a takedown of Mike online and on TV, Elinor dives into online dating and, unsurprisingly, meets other disaffected millennials with pretentious ambitions. With shrewd observations and biting humor, Harrington paints a bleak picture of a generation relentlessly focused on looking inward—and at their social media status.