Screenlife filmmaking, the process of telling a cinematic story entirely through characters’ computer screens, is the kind of gimmick that’s usually bad in theory and is worse in practice. There are smart exceptions, but the pandemic year we spent watching mediocre television produced over Zoom and the amount of time many of us are still professionally obligated to spend on video calls is enough to make watching them for pleasure sound like a daunting proposition.
The format is best known for the films “Unfriended” and “Searching,” both of which were produced by Timur Bekmambetov, who has gone all in on Screenlife storytelling. The niche mogul is also behind “LifeHack,” Ronan Corrigan’s directorial debut that tries to give FaceTime screens and Discord servers the “Ocean’s 11” treatment.
For Kyle (Georgie Farmer), the Internet is the ultimate playground. Smarter and savvier about digital spaces then virtually anyone else he encounters online, he spends his days detecting online scams and scamming them back before they have a chance to hurt anyone. He’s the Robin Hood of shitposting, but the 17-year-old feels a ludicrous (but relatable) pressure to achieve something massive by the age of 19, when so many of his heroes launched their own tech startups. The only problem is that he doesn’t have any ideas to match his ambition.
If you can’t build something, you might as well steal from others, and he and his Discord buddies Alex, Sid, and Petey soon come up with a plan. Chaotic billionaire and clear Elon Musk stand-in Don Heard (Charlie Creed-Miles) has been recklessly talking about his crypto investments, leading Kyle to believe that there’s a way to track down his wallet and steal his funds using only publicly available information. They quickly devise a scam that starts with building an online presence for a fake modeling agency, signing his daughter (Jessica Reynolds) as a client (which requires her father’s signature since she’s under 21), using the personal info in her contract to hack into Don’s phone and have his number moved to a new sim card, perusing his notes app to find his passwords, and opening his crypto wallet and transferring $100,000 worth of a memecoin into Kyle’s account.
It goes off without a hitch, but they suspect there’s plenty more where that came from. The foursome are soon in cahoots with Don’s estranged daughter, who quickly caught onto their plan and enlists their help stealing another $20 million from him. A bigger plan requires bigger logistics, and when they’re forced to physically break into his office (still shown over FaceTime screens, of course), they attract the kind of law enforcement attention that could derail their adult lives before they even have a chance to start them.
The Screenlife format won’t be for everyone, but “LifeHack” distinguishes itself from its increasingly repetitive predecessors with the joy and energy that it captures in its polymath characters. To Kyle and his band of thieves, the internet isn’t an isolation chamber, it’s the place where they truly feel the most at home. Zippy editing and an energetic score ensures that the film never stalls for long enough to feel like doomscrolling, and the characters’ lack of life experience allows them to turn even the most serious of topics into a big joke. It sometimes plays like a far-less unsettling version of Harmony Korine’s “Baby Invasion,” sucking you into an addictively rhythmic crime spree that unfolds against a backdrop of thousands of reddit tabs and JPEG thumbnails.
I have my doubts that Screenlife will ever truly transcend gimmick status. Moviegoers have always looked to cinema for escapes from mundanity, and many of the most mundane parts of our lives exist in these hollow digital communication methods. But “LifeHack” can be very convincing in its argument that younger generations might feel differently. The internet is the closest thing these teenage cyberthieves have to a real life, and Corrigan’s dopamine onslaught of a film is an authentic portrait of the most alive they’ve ever been.
Grade: B
“LifeHack” premiered at SXSW 2025. It is currently seeking U.S. distribution.
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