Five years removed from the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, we have witnessed almost every iteration of telling a story through a screen. There was the effective and quick accidental demon conjuring of 2020’s Host’ and the collection of films like “Unfriended,” “Searching,” and “Profile,” which move in between horror and suspense. Given that our lives were inundated with apps like Zoom and Skype for such an extended period, it’s understandable that this style has a considerable amount of fatigue attached to it. (the boom and bust period of found footage films comes to mind). When you think a medium is down for the count, a film comes along — freshly changing the formula’s ingredients ever so slightly. Ronan Corrigan’s “Lifehack,” also produced by Timur Bekmambetov, is a digital heist film filmed through the lens of the unregulated cryptocurrency world.
With a lot at stake, Corrigan manages to sneak in clever critics about the “get rich quick” online culture” coupled with four young people trying to improve their lives. It just so happens they don’t know of a constructive way to do so other than the pranks they play. Kyle (Georgie Farmer) is the quarterback of internet scams. He knows all the ins and outs of the internet. If you need somebody to pinpoint a location, he’s got it. Do you need to make a fool out of one of those email phishers? The film presents a funny scenario at the beginning where he does that. You would think somebody from an intelligence agency would be knocking down his door to work for them. But most of what he does is (let’s say) “illegal. Kyle lives in the shadow of a father who left him and his mother some time ago. There’s also the pressure of living in the rat race of this sped-up road to riches.
For most of his days, Kyle hangs out with his internet friends from different parts of the world: Alex (Yasmin Finney), Sid (Roman Hayeck-Green), and Petey (James Scholz). Corrigan and co-writer Hope Elliott Kemp try to give each character different motivations through a shared sense of strife. For example, Sid has to deal with an abusive father at home, Petey is stressed about paying for college, and Alex helps with a sick family member. Wouldn’t it be nice if something that could solve all their material woes could fall out of the sky? The meal ticket comes from ‘Lifehack’s resident millionaire tech bro, Don Heard (Charlie Creed-Miles). This plan is highly complex, and the degree of difficulty is high – however, there’s $100,000 in memecoin as the prize. They have to convince Heard’s daughter (played by Jessica Reynolds) to sign up for a fake modeling agency with his signature. After that, they can brute force into his phone, go into his digital wallet, and swipe the funds.
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The first caper succeeds, and Alex and the gang get a little high on their supply. If they did this once, they can do it again, right? After a few more ventures, they realize that they were uncharacteristically sloppy in the first instance. While having a shaky alliance with Don’s daughter, a $20 million reward is at stake. But if you go bigger, you will ultimately encounter new challenges (and attract a considerable amount of cyber police in the process). ‘Lifehack” sits in a sweet spot where it doesn’t necessarily stick to the formula of having characters confined to their rooms of choice for the story to progress. There’s a sequence of events where a couple of the characters work in tandem to release locks and security clearances while others are physically within a facility to steal a physical item. Even with the digital aspects, Corrigan doesn’t forget about the slight emotional relationships in the story. It’s explicitly shown in the longstanding friendship between Kyle and Petey. As you can imagine, being on the cusp of being found out for cyber theft won’t look great on a college application. Not only is money on the line, but friendships are also.
If the video chat, multiple app method of storytelling hasn’t caught your eye, I’m unsure that ‘Lifehack’ will change your mind. If you are already familiar with films that utilize this style, the energy within this film is something to be checked out. ‘Lifehack’ doesn’t overstay its welcome, where it feels like you check into an hour-long Google chat meeting that should have been a half-hour. The pace and editing style work wonders, given how considerably more dangerous the plans get.
Lifehack premiered at the 2025 SXSW Film & TV Festival.
