Gia Coppola – Mainstream #Venezia77

PODCAST | Chiara Nicoletti interviews Gia Coppola, director of the film Mainstream.

If it wasn’t for its setting, in the world of social media addiction, second feature film by Gia Coppola, Mainstream, screening at the 77th Venice Film Festival in the Orizzonti section, we could easily see the story of Frankie as the perfect fit in a classic movie era. Gia Coppola reveals her fascination for Elia Kazan’s A face in the crowd and admits this film’s influence into this old fashioned tale that she describes as “A love story of being in love with someone who doesn’t love themselves set against the new emerging culture of today’s world”.

Mainstream: Just above Hollywood Boulevard lives Frankie, a young woman in her early 20s trying to navigate who she wants to be. With the death of Frankie’s father still lingering, Frankie knows she wants to do something of meaning but isn’t sure how and with the world in a current state of so much content and narcissism, it’s hard to not “compare and despair.” Stuck working as a bartender at a corner comedy club with her best friend Jake, Frankie questions what people today really value. It isn’t until she has a few cosmic run-ins with the mysterious Link, a man that seems to live life without rules that it inspires Frankie to lm him and upload his anti-mainstream rants onto the internet. Together, with the help of Jake, this unlikely band of outsiders rise to internet stardom. However, it’s hard to stay sane when the pressure of relevancy becomes important and new characters, like manager Mark, start making demands to bring in money. To make matters more complicated, Frankie and Link start getting romantically entwined. Frankie watches as Link becomes the epitome of everything he once denounced. It isn’t until Link publicly humiliates a young fan Isabel and Jake quits the team that Frankie really questions if she is also becoming the monster she helped create. A love story of being in love with someone who doesn’t love themselves set against the new emerging culture of today’s world.