Clout: A Cautionary Tale

Written and Directed by Jordan Murphy Doidge, Clout is indeed a cautionary tale. What happens when social media becomes an obsession that takes over your life, and how it can affect the young and the vulnerable.

Oskar (Archie Yates) is both young and vulnerable. He attends an elite private school where he has few friends, and his father is absent from the family home, either because of his parents having separated or him being just “too busy”.

Desperately in need of attention, he posts largely fictitious updates on his social media that, given the reaction they get, are making the situation worse rather than improving things. Then one day he makes the wild claim that he saw a dead body in the river while on his way to school. Although this is met with scorn from his schoolmates, he eventually persuades three friends (in Stand By Me style) to accompany him in search of the corpse. An expedition that reaches an inevitable tragic conclusion.

Yates portrays Oskar’s need for attention from someone – anyone – and his hope for just one small shot at glory, in an all too believable manner. His claim, that he would never be able to prove, is the result of his obsession sweeping aside a reality in which he is so unhappy, but he’s replacing that with an alternative that everyone else can see is naught but fabrication.

We live in a time where Andy Warhol’s assertion that “in the future, everybody will be famous for 15 minutes” has become a possibility, but as Doidge shows here, the price of attempting to achieve that can often be far too great.

Bearing in mind that I am of a generation that uses a phone primarily as a phone, and therefore not qualified to comment on the lifestyle of today’s teens, Doidge convinces me that he has done a remarkable job of getting to grips with the needs and attitudes of young people. His remarkable piece of filmmaking highlights the difficulties they face while attempting to get on with their lives and get an education under the pressures that modern life heaps on them. Perhaps Clout should be made available in schools, it might just give pause for thought to some who need to take a step back.

Clout A Cautionary Tale      Written and Directed by Jordan Murphy Doidge

Pimlico Pictures

Jim Welsh