One of the most powerful things a person can be is “around.” Whether it’s being in the right place at the right time, or lingering self-consciously until you’re the last man standing at a party, presence is potent. The weaponization of proximity is baked into the title of Lurker, the feature debut of filmmaker Alex Russell, who’s written on some of the biggest shows of the last few years (The Bear, Beef, Dave). But despite being the least buzzy of the pack, it’s the subject matter of Dave, which plays with but never fully undermines the anxieties of musical fame, where Lurker finds its closest match. In this Nightcrawler-like thriller of social and professional escalation, a cold-blooded nobody seizes his moment near a pop star and refuses to let go.
Matthew (Théodore Pellerin) doesn’t necessarily look like a starfucker. He’s square, a white and gawky retail worker at a fashionable L.A. boutique who conspicuously throws Nile Rodgers on the store playlist when the mononymous Oliver (Archie Madekwe) rolls in with his posse. From this tiny, obviously engineered detail, a row of increasingly sinister dominos begin to fall as Matthew ingratiates himself with Oliver, proves he can hang backstage at a concert, and worms his way into the large home that the entourage crashes at.
Oliver’s other hangers-on—ranging from his quiet videographer (Daniel Zolghadri) to his goof-around pals (Zack Fox and Wale Onayemi, both rappers who’ve worked with Kenny Beats, who provides the film’s score)—regard the newcomer with skepticism. They’ve managed to stick around during Oliver’s meteoric rise because they know how to, and, like veteran reality TV performers, they can sniff out when someone’s not there for the right reasons. As Matthew attempts to carve out a place in this unofficial organization, the camera gets up close and personal when documenting the ground-level work of pure ambition. Pellerin’s bulging eyes and empty smile start as uncomfortable, but become more transparently hungry as the plot unveils itself—the open mouth of a leech faced with a buffet. Whether he’s staring at a screen or a potential victim, Pellerin taps into a disconcerting, entitled soullessness.
This exploitational drive, exacerbated by the racial dynamic of a talentless white guy inserting himself into a group free from them, underscores the movements of the plot. The script’s tight machinations, which develop emotional ploys between the characters alongside their more material desires, mostly avoid being outlandish or far-fetched enough to distract from all the jockeying for control. In the always-be-posting era, playing the game inherently looks a little silly—and much of it is captured in amateurish handheld, like a behind-the-scenes music doc or music video B-roll—which gives Russell’s screenplay the wiggle room it needs to find an icky honesty in its appearance-forward reality. The ensuing rise-and-fall trajectory of the story isn’t new or unexpected, but Russell and his leads complicate things both through cultural specificity (this is a film obsessed with the weightless successes of handles and stories and follows) and by making it clear that, to an extent, the target of all these plots knows what he’s doing.
It’s not that Lurker blames Oliver for attracting a group of striving lackeys, but that it’s smart enough to know that being a pop star also means knowing how to wield power—how to play those underlings against each other and exploit his own sex appeal. The erotic undercurrent flowing throughout the film finds the object of affection dangling just enough encouragement, in Madekwe’s alluring glances and physical roughhousing, to stoke the fires of parasocial lust. The unspoken moments between Oliver and Matthew crackle, the veneers erected by both performers rarely budging.
It’s when Russell stops trusting his leads and leans hard into the shock, into what heinous schemes someone close to you could pull off, that Lurker shakes its audience free of its spell. As soon as it takes a step or two over the line with its story, the focus shifts from the intimate royal court politics of this friend group/business enterprise to the believability of the final act turn.
But of course things get out of control—it’s not like the dark underbellies of music-world organizations haven’t always exceeded our worst expectations. The strength of Lurker, though, is when it’s operating as a slick, slimy social-engineering thriller that anyone could relate to. Whether one recognizes the yen for fame, the capacity to sabotage those around them, or the vulnerability of being known, these eternal egotistical concerns tap into their hyper-modern forms here. Only, now the threats aren’t knocking at the door, or breathing hard on the phone—they’re following you on social media, monsters hidden in a sea of notifications.
Director: Alex Russell
Writer: Alex Russell
Starring: Théodore Pellerin, Archie Madekwe, Zack Fox, Havana Rose Liu, Wale Onayemi, Daniel Zolghadri, Sunny Suljic
Release Date: August 22, 2025
