Infamous

The script was called 'Southland' when Joshua Caldwell got it moving in 2019, and it ended up opening as 'Infamous': a Bonnie and Clyde story run through Instagram, with two kids holding up petrol stations across the American south and livestreaming the lot. The shoot started on 12 July 2019 in Guthrie, Oklahoma, and worked its way round small towns in the centre of the state, even though the story is set in Florida.

Arielle lives in a Florida town with her mother and her mother's boyfriend, whom she can't stand. She dreams of getting to Hollywood and of somebody noticing her, but her account has barely any followers. One night at a party changes that: she gets into a fight with another girl, somebody films it on a phone and the clip brings her a hundred and forty-seven new followers. Around then she meets Dean, a neighbour just out of prison and living with a violent father.

When Arielle's savings go missing and neither household is bearable any more, the two leave town with half a tank and no money. The fix arrives in the shape of a petrol-station robbery, and Arielle streams it live while Dean goes in with the gun. The followers multiply, brands start sliding into her messages, and that's where the crack opens: he wants to vanish and she wants the whole map watching.

The leads are Bella Thorne, a Disney graduate by way of 'Shake It Up!' and seen since in 'Assassination Nation' and 'Midnight Sun', and Jake Manley as Dean. With them come Marisa Coughlan as the mother, Michael Sirow as a career robber and Amber Riley, Mercedes in 'Glee', as a follower who crosses their path on the road.

Vertical Entertainment put it out in the United States on 12 June 2020, with nearly every cinema shut by the pandemic, and it took a little over 400,000 dollars worldwide before landing on Hulu that October. British viewers got it on digital that summer. Reviews were mostly negative about the script and the broad irony of its take on social media, though nearly every critic made an exception for Thorne, including the ones who went hardest at the film.

• Crime
• Drama
• Romance