Genre: Romance
Director: Eliza Hittman
Writer: Chad Taylor
Cast: Grace van Patten, Ana de Armas, Alden Ehrenreich, Chris Messina, Zoey Deutch, Liam James
Plot: Michelle (Grace van Patten) is a college student that struggles to pay for her studies, working a side job as a waitress to pursue her degree in social work. She shares a close bond with her widowed father Ron (Chris Messina) - who is supportive of his daughter’s academic goals but unable to contribute much financially as a small-town pastor. As the pressure gets to her, she prioritizes her studies over her work and is laid off from her waitressing gig for her repetitive tardiness.
Once learning Michelle has been fired, her best friend Kayla (Zoey Deutch) tells her about how her sister's friend found relative success as a webcam girl online. The friend-of-a-sister-of-a-friend would broadcast whenever she wanted and viewers would tip her money if they like what they saw. She can show as much or as little of her body as she is willing to, but it has the advantage of being one’s own boss and choosing your own hours – which is largely advantageous to someone in Michelle’s position.
Despite growing up in a religious household, she never developed an opinion on exhibitionism one way or the other and starts to do her research. After realizing the viable option it could be, she decides she is going to try it out. However, to maximize her earning potential, she decides to study the ways of the most successful cam girls on the site. One girl in particular catches her eye, who goes by the screenname SugarSpice27 (Ana de Armas). Not only is she alluring in her beauty, but her personality and composure excite Michelle. She creates a second account, under the guise of a male, and begins to participate in SugarSpice’s chat.
In her own shows, Michelle is very conservative about displaying her body and only gives brief flashes of nudity. However, her youthful beauty is enough to earn her a small fanbase. Meanwhile, she is much more excited by SugarSpice and has noticed she has started to developed feelings for her (despite it being mostly one-sided interaction). Wanting to catch SugarSpice’s attention more, Michelle stops being a freeloader and actually starts using money (made from her shows) to tip SugarSpice. As a result, they begin to private message more and really start to get to know each other. Michelle finds out that SugarSpice’s real name is Leila. Michelle is even comfortable enough to ask Leila about the bruises on her legs (which she is coy about). Michelle still does not reveal her gender to Leila.
Although Michelle successfully balances her schoolwork and her own shows, she is willing to skip class or ditch her friends if she learns that Leila is online. She even ignores her dad's phone calls, if need be. She is both ecstatic and nervous to learn that Leila is conducting a raffle, with the winning prize being a date with her. The entry price is way out of Michelle’s price range however and so she decides to commit more to her own channel – both in time and flesh.
She is incredibly nervous but starts to venture further than just striptease shows and brief flashes of nudity. This proves to be a financially successful choice, although more viewers lead to some more sexually aggressive commenters. She enters the raffle and in jubilation when she learns that she won. She is told by Leila that she was her preferred option, given how Michelle (under her pseudonym) is one of the most personable and respectful viewers. Their communication becomes much more mutually flirtatious over this time.
At this point, the film swaps perspectives and gives a glimpse into Leila’s life. We follow her on the night preceding the raffle show. Before doing the penultimate show, we see her process of getting ready – setting up the room and lighting, picking the right outfit and putting on her make-up – including some to cover up some bruises on her. She does her show, then winds down with a glass of wine after. Her boyfriend Scottie (Alden Ehrenreich) shows up - clearly drunk and high on cocaine. They do some lines together and start to make out, but after she does something minor that upsets him, he becomes aggressive and slaps her. He asks how much she made tonight and makes her calculate his cut of that. Still in an angry state, he leaves and she heads to bed. While surfing the web, she herself goes to the webcam site and checks out the different channels to see if anything catches her attention. When she finds Michelle’s channel, she becomes enthralled. She begins to masturbate to the show as the camera fades to black.
A month goes by, as Michelle and Leila’s date nears. Michelle notices her grades are slipping, and when offered an on-campus job that can work around her school schedule, she takes the offer. As a result, she gives up doing her own shows, but keeps active on her second account during Leila’s shows. Kayla, who does not know about Leila, sets up Michelle on a blind date with her boyfriend's frat brother Isaak (Liam James). Despite Michelle's initial resistance, the date goes fine and she finds his kindness welcoming so accepts the offer of a second date. After the second one, they make out but when he makes a move to do more, she politely turns him down. Amidst his confusion, she tells him it's not him and they cordially go their separate ways. After learning of this, Kayla lets Michelle's father know of her worries that his daughter seems even more stressed than usual.
We see a montage of Leila, over this time, regularly checking to see if Michelle’s cam-girl profile is active (to no avail). One night after a show, she gets in another argument with Scottie and this time he pulls out a baseball bat she keeps under the bed. In a plea to stop him, she tells him she is five weeks pregnant. He drops the bat – but instead of being happy, he asks what this means for her cam gig and then wonders aloud if this is just a fake excuse to negate his dominance. He storms out.
The day of Michelle and Leila's meet-up has arrived. Leila waits at the restaurant in anticipation of their date. As Michelle walks up to the restaurant, Scottie passes in front of her and walks in before her (letting the door close in her face). When she enters the restaurant, she clearly has nervous butterflies when she spots Leila in the back, gazing around waiting for her date to show. That’s when Scottie approaches the table, clearly pissing off Leila – who tells him he’s not supposed to be here. He is in an apologetic tone and gives Leila a kiss before telling her he needs more money to buy drugs. She reminds him that she had a date tonight and promptly scolds him. The conversation is muddled for Michelle but all that she can really tell that happened is the kiss. She tells the hostess she won’t be eating there and walks out holding back tears.
An hour later, Leila texts Michelle and asks why she didn’t show. Although she contemplates making up an excuse, she tells her that she was there but saw her kissing another guy. Leila asks if she can call her real quick, and before Michelle can even message back a denial, the phone is ringing. She pulls over and answer the call. After slight hesitation, she uses her real voice and Leila is upset by this. Not that Michelle is a girl but that it was lied about – although the tone of her voice seems to imply a bit of both. Leila ends the call and Michelle sits roadside sobbing. She gets a FaceTime call request from Kayla and tries to wipe away her tears before answering. After picking up, she is shocked to find her dad with Kayla, learning that he came to campus to surprise her for dinner but she was nowhere to be found (so he contacted Kayla). Feeling the need to explain her tears and get a lot off her chest, she explains everything to both of them and the effects the emotional struggle has had on her social life. She also vents her long-held fears that Leila sees her as just a crazed fan or is simply stringing her along as she does to everyone else (for all she knows). But she wants to believe their connection is real. While Ron still needs some time to process it all, they are both supportive of her and tell her there is no need for her to apologize.
Leila is back home, pacing the place restlessly. When she opens up her laptop, she checks Michelle’s cam profile just in case, but still inactive. After staring at it for a moment, she gazes out the window in contemplation of her self-realized withdrawal from another camgirl and the hypocrite that makes her. She calls Michelle back and apologizes for her hastiness earlier. Regarding the Scottie situation, she explains the abusive control he has over her but that their relationship feels like a hole that keeps getting deeper and the harder it is for her to quit with each passing day. She apologizes for not acknowledging her boyfriend during any of their private messages, but she does not want that part of her online persona so she doesn’t lose any perceived value to the customers. Michelle consoles her. Leila then reminds Michelle that the date she paid for is still on the table.
They set up a date at a different restaurant. Again, Leila arrives first and Michelle is second. When Michelle walks through the door, Leila immediately notices her and says “It’s you?” in bewilderment. Michelle chuckles and reacts as if “yeah, duh it’s me”, but Leila leaves the table and reiterates – this time in a firm passionate way – “It’s you.” Coming on like a rocket after liftoff, she says “it’s you” one more time under her breath, runs her hands through Michelle’s hair, and initiates a passionate kiss. While Michelle is shocked at first, she obviously relieved as she's has been wanting this for forever. After the kiss has ended, there is near silence in the restaurant to which the two girls roar out in laughter. Leila explains that she actually saw one of Michelle’s shows and was incredibly excited by it. Michelle blushes and says she is so embarrassed that Leila had to sit through one of her (by comparison) lower quality shows. They both giggle and hold each other’s hand.
After they go back to Leila’s apartment, they start to have sex. There's a smash-cut to a close-up on Scottie's face looking nearly asleep. We pan out from his exhausted face and discover that he is getting a blowjob in a nightclub bathroom stall. Afterwards, he lumbers through the club – even more inebriated than usual. He blares rock music as he drives aggressively. When he arrives at Leila’s apartment, he makes his usual boisterous entrance – this time noticing the bedroom door is closed.
Leila is frozen in panic when she hears the front door open. He storms into the room and is taken aback to see another girl in bed with Leila. At first he makes a crude suggestion of a three-way, but quickly realizes that this is Leila’s date. He becomes aggressively anger, reminding her that there was to be no intimate contact with the date tonight – and especially not this. When he starts to storm towards Michelle, Leila leaps from the bed, knocks him off balance and punches straight in the jaw. This discombobulates him for a moment, giving her time to grab the baseball bat from under the bed. She demands he leave her apartment and never speak a word to her again. Before he can jumble together an angry response, she raises the bat and demands he leave now.
The next day, the girls gaze out on the morning sun from bed, snuggled into each other’s arms. They start to make plans for when they will meet again and how they can meet halfway next time. Michelle explains how she only has one more semester remaining, and fingers crossed, could get a job in her field nearby. Leila looks like she wants to say more but grows content with the path of the conversation, rests her head on Michelle’s shoulder and closes her eyes.
The end title cards begin to show, first the film’s title and then the director’s name. The third one reads “Six Months Later”. Michelle is walking in her college graduation, as Ron and Kayla cheer her on. After the ceremony, they stick around as she says goodbye to some of her friends and professors. Michelle is looking around the room for someone else, as Leila had done at the restaurant earlier. Leila, very noticeably pregnant at this point, then bursts into the arena and finds Michelle. She profusely apologizes about missing the ceremony and complains about how bad the traffic was. Leila says hi to Ron and Kayla, giving them all hugs. Leila and Michelle embrace, after which Michelle kneels down and puts her head and hands against Leila’s stomach. “How’s our little one doing today?” she asks, the both of them cracking a smile.
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