Profile

I was absolutely fascinated by the movie Searching because the entire narrative takes place on computer and smartphone screens.  When I saw the trailer for Profile, which employs the same format, I immediately wanted to see it and I had the chance to do so last night.  Amy Whittaker (Valene Kane) is a British investigative journalist who works freelance but is desperate for a permanent position.  She pitches a story about the recruitment of young European women into the terrorist organization ISIS but she needs something compelling to impress her editor (Christine Adams).  She decides to create a new Facebook profile using the persona of a young girl who has recently converted to Islam so she can experience the recruitment process firsthand.  She begins liking and sharing videos with jihadist content and is soon contacted by Abu Bilel (Shazad Latif), a member of ISIS living in Syria.  They begin conversing over Skype every day and, while Amy initially tries to find out damaging information from Bilel, she eventually becomes sympathetic to his cause.  Is she falling in love with the charismatic terrorist or is she doing whatever it takes to get a good story?  The images on Amy's computer screen flash very quickly between her conversations with Bilel, her conversations with her increasingly concerned editor and friends (Morgan Watkins and Emma Carter), footage of ISIS activities from other Facebook profiles, and Google searches for information.  This particular format is even more compelling in this movie than in Searching because it is based on a true story about a relationship conducted entirely on social media.  It is also a cautionary tale about revealing too much about yourself to strangers online. The narrative is incredibly suspenseful and I was on the edge of my seat for most of the final act as Amy's situation becomes more and more dangerous.  Both Kane and Latif give convincing performances as two people playing a cat-and-mouse game with deadly consequences and the tension is palpable.  I really enjoyed this and I recommend it to fans of these so-called Screenlife movies.