REVIEW: SWEAT

Producer- Mariusz Włodarski

Director- Magnus von Horn

Star Cast- Magdalena Kolesnik, Julian Świeżewski, Aleksandra Konieczna, Zbigniew Zamachowski and Lech Łotocki

Genre- Social

OTT Platform- MUBI

Emotional Saga!

Rating- **

Jyothi Venkatesh

The breakout second feature from writer-director Magnus von Horn, Sweat offers an up-to-the-second, achingly relatable portrait of everyone’s need, especially in today’s age and times, for unadulterated and genuine connection.

Told with a pulse-pounding feel, it is a refreshingly honest and achingly relatable but shocking glimpse beneath the candy-colored surface of internet celebrity.

Magdalena Koleśnik turns in a star-making performance as beloved fitness influencer Sylwia Zajak, who seemingly has it made, with as many as hundreds of thousands of social media followers, endorsement deals and photo spreads in magazines to her credit.

However when Sylwia shares a video of herself breaking down in tears on Instagram, her sponsors become concerned, her most rabid fan turns increasingly obsessive, and she’s at last forced to confront her deepest insecurities.

As Sylwia barrels toward a talk show appearance that could catapult her fame and also destroy everything she’s built, Sylwia must decide whether she can keep up with the exhaustive demands of her online fame.

Sylwia (Magdalena Koleśnik) seemingly has it: hundreds of thousands of social media followers, endorsement deals, photo spreads in magazines.

But as she starts to share more and more online, the rising pressure from concerned sponsors and increasingly obsessive fans forces her to confront her deepest insecurities and the exhaustive demands of her lifestyle.

Sylwia is accompanied at work by her fitness partner Klaudiusz (Julian Swiezewski) and her cute dog Jackson.

To sum up, Sweat offers an up-to-the-second achingly relatable portrait of everyone’s need for genuine connection and is a riveting drama which sets out to expose the real-life murky repercussions of our digital culture.

It shows how dangerous the addiction to social media today can have on those who crave for its attention and the often ugly fame it can give and also the dangerous repercussions it can lead to eventually.

The film drives home how problems begin when the camera stops rolling and Sylwie realizes that she is all alone, still searching for human connection.

The film is basically about what happens when a celebrity fitness motivator has a moment of reckoning in her life when she starts seeing things from an entirely different perspective altogether.

Magdelina Kolesnik gets into the skin of her role as the Instagram star Sylwia with effortless ease and candor and comes across as a near-inhuman torrent of energy and positivity and what’s more, radiates her own effervescent glow.

To sum up, Sweat streaming on Mubii, is an emotional saga of today’s ambitious women who are not at all blinded by the far reaching side effects of the dreaded as well as beloved social media, which starts controlling them and charter the course of their vulnerable lives too.

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