Fest Track On Sirk TV Film Review: AMERICAN SWEATSHOP [SXSW Film 2025 - Austin, Texas]

The aspect of information and what a person does with it is the crux even more in our society in age of social media. The notion of administrators and moderators covering the texture of the common good reflects in the timing of what correlation a perspective sometimes has to current events. In "American Sweatshop" [Narrative Spotlight]. Lili Reinhart, a breakout from her days on "Riverdale," plays Daisy, a moderator at a company that polices (or rather deletes) those videos deemed too extreme or offensive, not in the name of censorship but in the name of the common good. The reality is that this damages everyone who works there psychologically. Daisy finally sees something she can't get out of her mind and she decides she needs to do something about it.

This realizatiomn leads her down a rabbit hole of sorts taking matters into her own hands while it also reflectively impacts her psyche despite her thoughts to the contrary. It is an interesting character structure of sorts. Reinhart is now starting to look like a younger Jennfer Lawrence with alot of the same range but maybe not the same acting opportunities yet. The situations in the film are well executed and works in the essence of thriller she is living in her real life versus the office structure which is unique. D aisy keeps hearing a hammer in her head that can't leave her, even when she tries to blot it out. There is also the aspect of the crocodile on the edge of their pond outside their workplace since this is set in Florida which is a slightly odd choice anyway. The concept of the predator and the prey is a very visceral part of the story. It actually leads to Daisy's crossroad. Obviously this theme is an increasingly important but at time diametric subject but when based in a thriller structure, it gives a sense of what online damage can do to some people. Reinhart captures the anxiety but also the rage. B

By Tim Wassberg