Sommerleigh Pollonais, Feature Writer
Plot: Posing as a wealthy, jet-setting diamond mogul, he wooed women online, then conned them out of millions of dollars. Now some victims plan for payback.
Review: So a couple years ago (2020 to be precise) Netflix got everyone in the world talking about the crazy but completely true story of Joe Exotic, also known as The Tiger King. The impact of this docu-series cannot be understated as how many documentaries have had this kind of impact to the point where there are multiple movie and television projects based on it still in the works?
The bar has been set extremelyu high for similar projects and while I don’t think The Tinder Swindler jumps it, I have to say it comes pretty damn close!
The Tinder Swindler starts off with a woman named Cecile (no actors here as everyone is telling their own story) talking about how she grew up watching Disney movies and these types of films helpd formed her basis for finding love. She uses an app most everyone knows of (even those such as myself who have never utilised it), Tinder, to find matches and this is where her nightmare begins. A nightmare called Simon Leviev.
Director Felicity Morris deserves a ton of praise for the way she executed the narrative and handled these heart wrenching and legitimately shocking stories. I won’t go into detail as, like The Tiger King, the less you know about The Tinder Swindler the more likely you are to get sucked into it.
I will say that I can easily see most people (including myself) starting off thinking these women fools, but the more you think about the way Simon Leviev went about conning them, well, if you’re honest with yourself I think it’s easy to see how these women fell for his particular brand of smarminess. There are cons and then there are cons on a scale even the smartest among us would not see coming.
So if The Tiger King left you excitedly dissecting every story beat with your friends I can promise The Tinder Swindler will do the same, especially after they reveal of what came next for everyone involved. Let’s just say if you’re inclined to throw things when you’re pissed off, you may want to make sure the remote isn’t within your reach.
Sommer’s Score: 7 out of 10
So have you seen The Tindler Swindler? What did you think of it? And you can check out more great documentary content below:
Sommerleigh of the House Pollonais. First of Her Name. Sushi Lover, Queen of Horror Movies, Comic Books and Binge Watching Netflix. Mother of two beautiful black cats named Vader and Kylo. I think eating Popcorn at the movies should be mandatory, PS4 makes the best games ever, and I’ll be talking about movies until the zombie apocalypse comes.
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