{Fantastic Fest 2024} Girl Internet Show: A Kati Kelli Mixtape

Girl Internet Show: A Kati Kelli Mixtape press material described her as a digital native and perhaps its the fact that I am old (just ask my teenager) but the label felt like one of terms created by the internet for the internet without meaning outside of that context. I had no idea what it was to be a ‘digital native’ and how it might impact my review. Girl Internet Show: A Kati Kelli Mixed Tape is weird as hell and does a better job of describing the relationship between Gen Z and the internet than any sociology book I have read. It also manages to capture a late twenty teens zeitgeist that seems equal part genius and deep melancholy. Post pandemic those feelings only became more amplified. Watching it directly after my experience with The Substance was profound and I highly recommend that double feature to anyone.

Producers Jane Schoenbrun and Jordan Wippell have put together a program entirely dedicated to the digital art of Kati Kelli a content creator who I can best describe as a much darker version of Bo Burnham with less emphasis on music and more on social satire. At first her entries appear entirely silly. Often without setup or explanation. As we get to know Kelli more her art becomes clearer and the content much much weirder. She manages to deftly maneuver between biting satire of popular shows like the “Real Housewives” franchise and comedy that reflects just how damaging living in a digital universe can be. Each of these vigenttes offers a different look into what it is like to be a teenage girl living in the world right now and it is almost hard to watch at times.

It was impossible for me to watch this collection without using Jonathan Haidt’s absolutely phenomenal work The Anxious Generation as a guide. I am a teacher first and as all of my teenagers tell me on a regular basis it is incredible difficult to live in a world where if you aren’t performing in real life you are expected to perform online. Teenagers become masters at cultivating their best selves online. Girl Internet Show: A Kati Kelli Mixtape demonstrates that in a world that demands our teenagers perform all the time, that performance itself can be an act of rebellion.

While the themes of the film run deep there is no escaping that the movie is intentional in its humor. She is at her core a comedian. Not a stand up comedian. Had she lived (she passed away soon after creating the final sketch) I do not see her touring live like Burnham but I could see her in a writers room bringing a fresh face and voice to stale jokes within the old medium of television. Her content might fit nicely at home with a sketch comedy troop who wants to remain relevant. As Saturday Night Live celebrates its fifty year mark but quietly worries about its long term viability the bizarre world of Kati Kelli would have been a great place to look to freshen up.

If Meow Wolfe made bizarre online content Girl Internet Show: A Kati Kelli Mixtape might be a part of it. . It is not a film to watch it is a event to experience. She is a content creator on the brink but of what we are not entirely sure. A creative breakthrough, maybe? A nervous breakdown, more likely.  

I am a Tik-Tok fan….ermmm maybe addict and Kelli’s work is absolutely prescient of some of the fads that have taken over parts of the Tik-Tok space. From Stay at Home Moms, to GRWM videos Kelli knows what is coming and through the curators of this collection we get to see her lampoon them in the most absurd way possible….from the past.

It is not just that the collection tackles these issues with a eye for the bizarre. It is more than that. Most bits appeared to be shot in Kelli’s modest apartment. It adds to the urgency and the authenticity of the moment. She is not a real housewife living in a huge home. She is not a content creator who aims to fake her success until she actually makes it. She is just a girl. Doing a bit. In that discussion the artifice itself becomes the act of rebellion. It is Andy Warhol for the digital age and while I cannot say I get all of it, I get enough of it to understand its importance.

Any discussion of this selection would be remiss if it didn’t mention the last vignette that Kelli created. Total Body Removal Surgery posits that Kelli is done with her body and is willing to go through the newest craze, Total Body Removal. In her typical absurdist style we get a fully immersive experience replete with testimonials and a “come with me as I…” style narrative that feels as haunting as it does funny. Like all things, its weird but it somehow feels important.

This is the type of collection that is made for the Fantastic Fest crowd. Hopefully it see’s wider distribution. Watch Kelli’s work wherever you can find it. She stands as a strange Oracle giving us advice into a future she never lived to see.