The Hater (2020)
4/5
First of all, I was glad to find this properly dubbed! Netflix is evolving. The film of course borrows from
American History X, but also, surprisingly, from
Nightcrawler (especially where the younger protagonist enchants and eventually seduces his much older female boss). I take issue with such films being labelled ‘antihero’ films - that dilutes the term to the extent that we don’t know what it is supposed to mean. Tomasz doesn’t seem to have any agenda - he just needs a job. This is where
The Hater differs from
Believer, which came to mind when I started watching this. Partly because of this lack of agenda or conviction, Tomasz’ vulnerability doesn’t feel grounded or justified, which diminishes the impact of showing it. We don’t know why he’s crying in the bathroom and why he’s so lonely, especially since he appears sociable enough and has no issues interacting with the world. If he’s unhappy because Gabi doesn’t like him, the film threatens to veer into teenage angst territory, which I think is the last thing it intends to do. Unlike in
American History X, we don’t get to see what has damaged the protagonist enough to engage in psychological warfare, and he didn’t seem invested enough in his law course emotionally for it to be just that.
American History X countered that problem of motivation by having Danny look up to his brother, already damaged by the movement and incarcerated for that, so we can say Danny wants revenge. But Thomasz in
The Hater has no family, and no significant attachment to anyone. I didn’t buy the obsession with Gabi and her family, but that might just be me. The film is a bit illogical - the seduction scene is absolutely ridiculous, and never seems to have any implications. But somehow, it does all join up into a fairly compelling character study. It’s a shame the film didn’t address the topic of who orders the smear campaigns in detail - Thomasz’ ‘clients’ - as that could have made it more rooted in the reality of business and corporate spying, like
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. It could have had a little more action. I didn’t really understand why ‘animation’ was listed as one of the genres. It must be because of the video game segments (that made me think of
Striking Vipers), but did they really take up enough time to warrant an additional genre? Oddly enough, I feel like I might rewatch this soon.