Here’s What Critics Are Saying About The New David Dobrik Doco ‘Under The Influence’
Critics say the documentary is "unsparing" in its critique of influencer culture.
Early reviews for the David Dobrik documentary Under The Influence are in, and unfortunately, we find ourselves invested in what they have to say. But first, some background.
— Content warning: This article includes descriptions of sexual assault. —
Dobrik made headlines for all the wrong reasons in 2021, when the famed 25-year-old YouTuber and his ‘Vlog squad’ — a gaggle of close friends Dobrik enlisted to create content with, usually including the likes of Dom Zeglaitis, Jason Nash, Todd Smith, Jeff Wittek, Nick Antonyan, and Brandon Calvillo — became implicated in sexual assault allegations.
An exposé published by Insider in March last year alleged that a woman featured in one of David Dobrik’s YouTube videos was assaulted by a member of the squad. The young woman — referred to in the article by the pseudonym ‘Hannah’ — told the publication that Vlog Squad member Dominykas Zeglaitis (who also goes by the name Durte Dom) sexually assaulted her after she filmed a YouTube video at the squad’s house in 2018.
Hannah by no means saw David as an innocent bystander to the incident, telling Insider that Dobrik “facilitated” the alleged attack. In the wake of the allegations, Dobrik two attempts at an apology. “I wanna apologise to [Hannah] and her friends for ever putting them in an environment that I enabled that made them feel like their safety and values were compromised,” he said in his second video. “I’m so sorry. I was completely disconnected from the fact that when people were invited to film videos with us, especially videos that relied on shock for views or whatever, it was that I was creating an unfair power dynamic. I did not know this before.”
However, in an interview with Rolling Stone last year, he said: “I knew where I went wrong, but I was not in the room, I was not aware of what was going on,” he said. “None of my friends were. They would have kicked that fucking door down if anybody knew what was going on, allegedly.”
Dobrik traffics in a brand of ‘prank culture’ where exploitation and the potential for danger is part of his appeal. His friend Casey Neistat began filming Dobrik before this scandal broke, so Under The Influence spans both Dobrik’s rise and fall, and rise once again.
While we don’t yet have word of where and when the documentary will premiere in Australia, early reviews are trickling in after its premiere at the SXSW Festival in the US. So what are early reviews saying about the new documentary?
Variety: Absorbing And Unsettling
According to Variety, Under The Influence reveals David as “an extremely shrewd manipulator of his own image”. “I convince people I’m having fun,” he reportedly says in the doco. “This is all part of my act.”
The documentary, according to Variety, also indirectly pokes holes in the continuing spectre of ‘cancel culture’ — while Dobrik lost investors and sponsors amid allegations that he was complicit in a sexual assault, he returned to YouTube three months later and says he’s “back on top”.
“The premise of capitalism is that it follows the money,” the review writes. “In the case of David Dobrik, the money speaks — and what it says is that he’s going to vlog, and a whole lot of followers are going to eat it up, even if that means Rome is burning.”
The Hollywood Review: Fails To Press Its Subject On The Real Questions
Reviewer John DeFore seemed less moved by the documentary, who found that filmmakers failed on basic things like properly orienting the viewer with time stamps. DeFore also adds that the film seemed too sympathetic to Dobrik.
“Even after issuing what sounded like a sincere, thorough apology for facilitating and profiting from the alleged rape, Dobrik tells Neistat [in the documentary] that he didn’t think the scandal-starting news article was fair to him. If the filmmaker pushed back on this seemingly absurd claim, those objections don’t make it onto the screen”.
The review laments that the doco seems less concerned about the allegations than it Dobrik’s “inevitable comeback”.
Rolling Stone: Not A Redemption Documentary
Reviewer EJ Dickson said that this isn’t the ‘redemption documentary’ that some social media users have characterised it as, adding that it is deeply critical of its subject. “It is unsparing in its criticisms of influencer culture and the damage it can wreak on others’ lives, and how Dobrik specifically abdicated his enormous responsibility as a creator and hurt many in the process.”
Dickson says the film ends on a “dejected note” that laments how Dobrik has managed to dodge accountability for his actions and continue to thrive, even securing his own Discovery+ series which debuted last year. They add that the film is less about Dobrik specifically and the dangers of the YouTube ecosystem as a whole.
“Without absolving David of his wrongdoing or apologising him, I do think there’s a greater question of culpability when it comes to 20 million clicking subscribers, and countless blue chip companies writing him huge checks,” Neistat says in the doco. “What culpability do the viewers have? And I don’t know if there is an answer to that question.”