American Sweatshop Review: Lili Reinhart Delivers Her Best Role to Date in This Uneven But Timely Drama About Content Moderation
Content moderation takes centre stage in American Sweatshop, marking cinematographer-turned-director Uta Briesewitz’s debut feature, whose prior credits were mainly helming episodes for television series such as Orange Is the New Black and Severance. The job is easy, as company manager Joy (Christiane Paul) would put it, since all they need to do is sit at a desk, stare at a computer, and review the flagged posts to determine whether the video violates their corporate-mandated “Terms of Use” agreement. These content moderators would either click “approve” or “delete”, depending on the posts.
One of the employees is Daisy Moriarty (Lili Reinhart), who’s been doing this for quite some time. A full-time job that has become a routine for her, no matter how offensive or inappropriate the content is. These posts are usually about explicit sex and violence, and you can imagine someone like Daisy has to watch and listen to all that every day. It is no doubt a test of mental endurance for such a taxing job. Which is why the company provides them an in-house counselling in case of any employees who suffer from work-related issues.
Briesewitz, who directed Matthew Nemeth’s screenplay, details Daisy’s daily regime: work, hooked up for a date, and occasionally babysitting a young kid named Violet (Faith Delaney). Everything seems mundane for her until one day, she comes across a video that she believes is an act of murder. Briesewitz chooses to refrain from showing the content and instead focuses on Daisy’s stunned expression with only a few glimpses of the alleged murder scene reflected in her eyes. Her friend and co-worker, Ava (Daniela Melchior), advises her to just “sleep it off”, even though Daisy convinces the murder is real.
It’s only a matter of time before she finally has had enough and decides to report a crime at the police station, only to be dismissed by the officer; it’s just one of those sick contents. This is where I figure Briesewitz begins to shift the movie’s deliberate slice-of-life drama of a content moderator into a mystery thriller.
With no one seeming to believe her or help her in any way, Daisy decides to take matters into her own hands. She starts her own investigation, but in what could have been a high-stakes scenario, trying to track down the person from the video, who commits such a nauseating act of violence, the so-called mystery deflates rather than giving me a sense of intrigue.
This makes me wonder whether Briesewitz is too afraid of embracing the path into the darkness about how far Daisy is willing to go to find out the truth. It’s a waste of opportunity because Daisy’s vigilante-style mission is sadly superficial. A movie like this wouldn’t work well if a director either chooses to play it safe or tone down the disturbing subject matter.
Still, the movie remains fairly engrossing, thanks to Lili Reinhart’s subtle performance as Daisy. Beyond her magnetic charm, the former Riverdale star showcases her nuanced acting without resorting to over-the-top histrionics. It’s hard not to root for her journey and how the job and that particular video keep haunting her, even when she goes to bed at night. Did the murder actually take place in the video? Or is it just a clip that makes it look like a snuff film? Or perhaps, is she overthinking too much that it might be the highly demanding job stressing her out after all? The movie doesn’t give you clear answers, opting for an interpretative approach that touches on Daisy’s obsession and how a job as a content moderator may affect or even change the person’s point of view.
