When it comes to what people post online, there is always an impact. It does not extend just to that person who posted or to the person who expands it to different audiences. It can go further and there are consequences if it is halted or disappears. From the mind of director Uta Briesewitz this is American Sweatshop.  I found this film to be a surreal portrait of technological impact in great detail. It is a cinematic jolt of how impactful social media and the internet in general can be—both haunting and mesmerizing. It is like a clock-ticking with curiosity and questions. Time is of the essence repeatedly for many of the online events in American Sweatshop. Earning tons of press in the SXSW Film Festival in 2024 in the Official Selection categories, American Sweatshop is finally finding its way to wider audiences.

The film is one that I find to be authentic and brilliant. At the same time, it is overwhelming in forcing viewers to think about how much they look at their screens to think about how much content they look at in a day. Think about how much positivity and negativity is seen. Then also think about how one must transition one’s mind to deal with each situation based upon what they see on the internet. That is all of what American Sweatshop is about.

The film stars a girl named Daisy, played by Lili Reinhart. She works as a dispatcher moderating social media. Her life entails trying to navigate the internet, keeping and deleting media in long shifts. She mostly deals with videos, many of which are graphic. She repeatedly sees multiple videos of cars falling over cliffs and the like–it mentally drains her. However, her role starts to impact her even more when she realizes that there are more creepy scenarios out there, and she finds herself in a bind. She cannot decide if she wants to report the footage she sees online to higher authorities. 

The film keeps its stressful momentum afloat. That is where its brilliance is flawless.  The characterization of Daisy creates asurrealism around the film’s main point. Her boss is Joy, played by Christiane Paul. Joy operates by the book and only wants Daisy to play by the rules, but Daisy’s workplace is filled with mixed patterns.  All the dispatchers respond differently to the scenarios put in front of them. The context of constantly dealing with emergencies from the outside world creates a vast world of stressors that are hard to interpret in American Sweatshop.

The film is one of those that shows what the damages of screen time can do to an individual. It also shows its impact on their lives outside of their workplace.  To an extent though, the mental awareness in the performance of Reinhart is stellar.  She knows that what she is seeing and approving is wrong, but the industry does not see it that way. The portrait of what goes on in the real world out there creates many questions for the future in American Sweatshop. I found myself intrigued with the process of the dispatcher and moderator direction in the social media sense presented in the film. The thoroughness of what they examine as a day job seemed especially obscure. A suspenseful and true ride of the realities of technology and trying to find the paths to  truths and provide measures of safety. A striking and poetic portrait of finding justice in the realm of social media hitting weird plateaus. American Sweatshop does it right. Four out of four stars.