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The American Meme is a Netflix Original documentary film released on December 7, 2018. The film explores the lifestyle and journey of four social media influencers, Paris Hilton, Josh Ostrovsky (The Fat Jew), Brittany Furlan and Kirill Bichutsky. The film was produced by Bert Marcus and Cassandra Hamar Thornton. It was written and directed by Bert Marcus with the production company Bert Marcus Productions.

The film stars a number of celebrities including Paris Hilton, Emily Ratajkowski, DJ Khaled and Hailey Baldwin. The American Meme was first premiered at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival in April, where it was acquired by Netflix and released as a Netflix Original in December 2018.

Plot
The American Meme explores the online footprint and behind the scenes stories of four social media celebrities who have utilised online platforms to gain followers and become ‘influencers’ in the digital age.

The documentary film The American Meme raises the idea of modern alienation under capitalism and explores material on the Paris Hilton, Josh Ostrovsky, Brittany Furlan and Kirill Bichutsky’s rise to fame, strategies and difficulties in maintaining influence and the use of social media as a source of income.

Cast
In order of the film credits, the on-screen cast is :

Directors
The American Meme was directed by Bert Marcus. Bert Marcus is the founder of the production studio Bert Marcus Productions and has directed three films.

Bert Marcus has directed two other films, ‘What We Started’ (2017) and ‘Champs’ (2014).

He has been a producer on nine films, which include ‘Human Capital’ (2019) and ‘How to Make Money Selling Drugs’ (2012).

Production
The documentary film was produced by Bert Marcus Productions.

Producers and Executive Producers

Bert Marcus and Cassandra Hamar Thornton are the producers of The American Meme. Bert Marcus and Cassandra Hamar Thornton as a team have worked on a number of films and are credited as being the producers and executive producers of five films together, including ‘Ophelia’ (2018), ‘Human Capital’ (2019), ‘Bull’ (2019) and ‘What We Started’ (2017).

The Executive Producers are Brett Gursky, Paris Hilton and Ben Lyons.

Cinematographers

·       Will Dearborn

·       Abraham Martinez

Film Editing

·       Tchavdar Georgiev

·       Monique Zavistovski

Release
The American Meme was first premiered as a Tribeca selection at the Tribeca Film Festival on April 27, 2018.

The documentary film was acquired by Netflix after the premiere and officially released on December 7, 2018 as a Netflix Original documentary.

Critical Reception
On review aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the documentary has an approval rating of 94% and an average score of 6.76/10 based on 31 critics. The audience score on Rotten Tomatoes is 97% and the average score is 4.87/10 based on 1366 user ratings.

Timeout listed The American Meme as the number 1 film to watch in the article ‘The 10 best movies at Tribeca Film Festival 2018’.

Critic Bilge Ebiri from Vulture wrote that “The American Meme can be fun, even informative, but there’s a bigger story here, and Bert Marcus mostly fails to tell it”.

Common Sense media critic Brian Costello reviewed the documentary and noted that “While well-done and comprehensive, this documentary also feels like kicking down an open door.”

Soundtrack
The soundtrack to The American Meme features a number of songs by artists including Britney Spears, Eminem and Ariana Grande.

LA based film composer and songwriter Tyler Strickland is credited with selecting the pieces for the soundtrack in The American Meme.