Matthew Morning (Théodore Pellerin) works at a boutique clothing store in Los Angeles, but has aspirations of being a filmmaker.  The store is frequented by rising pop musician, Oliver (Archie Madekwe), and Matthew sees this as his opportunity to get closer to his own stardom.  Striking up a friendship with the musician, he is soon invited to join the band backstage at an upcoming show and now in Oliver’s good graces, Matthew convinces him to film a documentary about the band.  As Matthew keeps pushing their relationship to new levels, Oliver eventually begins to pull away causing the fan to spiral out and desperately try to save their friendship by framing himself as Oliver’s true muse. 

Alex Russel writes and directs Lurker, his feature film debut after a career in writing for television and directing music videos.  The 100 minute social thriller premiered at the 2025 edition of the Sundance Film Festival and was shortly picked up for distribution by Mubi.  They gave the film a limited theatrical release in the late summer before splashing onto their streaming service in the early fall. 

Lurker is a fiercely modern film that utilizes technology in an integral way without feeling like it is terminally online or meant for vertical consumption.  Russel’s film taps into age old themes of stardom that have long attracted filmmakers while weaving in the modern anxieties and framing the story in a similarly modern way.  This is not Sunset Boulevard (1950) or What Ever Happened to Baby Jane (1962), it is Lurker, a film in and of its own making and unafraid in showing how the dark, sleek, addictive side of show business has remained through the decades from the alure of the silver screen that called out to our matinee idols to the glare of the back lit screen that tempts today’s influencers with monetization in exchange for their privacy. 

Longing to break free from his dull station is Pellerin’s Matthew.  The character is a great foil to Madekwe’s Oliver, both enigmas in their own right within the narrative, completing and complementing each other.  For Matthew, he has a sinister streak about him as he makes his moves to infiltrate Oliver’s inner circle, playing it up when they first meet that he is unaware of Oliver’s fame.  While Pellerin makes the role make sense to an audience, Russel does the actor few favors with how bold and brash he has crafted Matthew on the page.  The script seems to gloss over aspects of the character’s development, not so much so that we are not able to follow his arc, but enough that we do feel like we are missing out on enough behind the scenes scheming on his part that the character ends up presenting as far less dangerous than he actually is.  Granted, we never feel like Matthew is a true threat to Oliver’s own safety, but the brief glimpses we see of Matthew when the two are apart point towards a fascinating obsession that the film does not fully capitalize on. Nonetheless, Pellerin’s performance culminates in an impressive scene late in the film when Matthew insists that Oliver wrestle with him and the two end up on the floor with Oliver in a restrained fury both mad at Matthew for making him engage in this roughhousing, and mad at himself for enjoying it; all the while, Matthew laughs, totally disconnected from reality yet at the same time high on the thrill.  In his mind, this is the clearest declaration of victory.

If Russel challenged Pellerin on the page, he was absolutely out to handicap Madekwe as Oliver.  To the actor’s credit, he finds a throughline for the character, and while he is always mysterious, we do slowly begin to get an idea of what drives him.  Unfortunately, as is often the case with films that follow performers is that there is an incredible bar to cross for audiences to believe that the singer – or comedian, dancer, poet, what have you – actually be good enough that their stardom in the world of the film makes sense, and Oliver’s songwriting just does not meet that standard in Lurker.  He is almost devoid of charisma as a singer, and because the film is more focused on celebrity obsession, it can not be written off as an intentional indictment against modern music or internet pop stars, especially since we are shown that Oliver is a touring artist and not just a dime a dozen content creator that has tapped into the algorithm for their fifteen minutes of fame.  That being said, Madekwe wisely centers his performance around the vulnerability of creativity.  It is honestly a touching performance, more so in his reaction to seeing the love and care which Matthew has assembled his documentary footage of him, but also more obtusely in the filming of his music video in one of the final scenes of the film. Sure, at this point, the metaphor of the tortured artist sacrificing themselves to the will of the fans is beyond rote, but this is where Madekwe’s overwhelming sensitive streak really shines. In some ways, it can be seen as a reflection of Matthew’s own rise, achieving his ambition but never quite thinking he would have gotten that far and is now in too deep to turn back. Where Matthew galvanizes himself at the apex of his journey, Oliver begins to crack open, needing that blind support from the ravenous Oliver more now than ever.

While both young actors give really terrific performances despite some weaknesses on the page, Russel’s final betrayal of his own thesis and the overall effectiveness of his film comes in the final scene where Matthew joins Oliver on stage after the premiere of his documentary.  We find out that Oliver is now a Grammy nominated artist – again, simply being told and forced to believe it – and Matthew is praised as a documentarian, but again, of the clips we see they are so poorly framed and focused that it is hard to believe that anything is actually salvageable let alone award worthy.  This may not be entirely fair criticism to levy against the film, but because the successes of both Matthew and Oliver are so integral to the film, that their creative output is so lackluster, it becomes an unavoidable stain on an otherwise taught and well thought out thriller.   

Russel’s opening gambit into the realm of feature filmmaking is an undeniably strong effort, albeit one with cracks of amateurism holding it back from its true potential.  The writer has a great handle on tone, and from the director’s seat, a great handle on style, but on the page he is afraid of overexposing his characters or becoming too insistent by showing us their every move.  The result is a tip-toeing around, but nevertheless, still falling into the trap of telling more than showing. Thankfully there is a clearly defined arc which Russel never strays too far from, so while we are left to fill in the gaps of what Pat Scola‘s lens was not allowed to capture, we never feel like these characters have changed too drastically workout cause between scenes.  David Kashevaroff’s edit also helps to organize Russel’s intentions with this story, pacing the film as a hangout for much of the first act before tightening their cuts around Matthew as he becomes more and more frantic to stay within Oliver’s orbit like a panicked animal grasping at a stray branch over a rushing river.  Bolstered by two strong foil performances at the head of the film, Lurker is a bold calling card and an exciting springboard to see what Russel has up his sleeve next.