The allure of Girl Internet Show is not just the belly-aching guttural laughter but the underlying ideas that Kati Kelli expresses through her strange creations. Due to its unconventional nature, it is unsure what the future is for Girl Internet Show: A Kati Kelli Mixtape. Do yourself a favor and seek out the archive of videos still roaming the internet on her channel.

Fantastic Fest’s Burnt Ends series showcases the micro budget oddities that truly represent the heart of this genre fest. The crown jewel of this showcase is something that would not have been accepted into a traditional film festival, a collection of work capturing the unique experience of exploring the depths of YouTube when it was still a lawless frontier of uninhibited creative expression.  

Kati Kelli was an internet artist and YouTube personality, operating within the creative vocabulary of the early YouTube days, creating strange content with an extremely niche sense of humor right from her childhood bedroom and later her apartment in Los Angeles. Just after finishing her first short film, and one of many scripts she hoped to bring to life, Kati unfortunately passed away due to a fatal asthma attack. Her widower, Jordan Whipple, knew the world needed to see Kati’s work and collaborated with Jane Schoenbrun (We’re All Going to the World’s Fair, I Saw the TV Glow) to create this showcase of Kati’s work. It is an honor to have the opportunity to bask in the shining light of a human that was Kati Kelli and share this celebration of life with a theater full of dedicated genre fans.

Named after her YouTube channel, Girl Internet Show is made up of various videos created, acted, and edited by Kati (some that can still be found on her channel), and ends with her short film Total Body Removal Surgery. This body of work is an unhinged, ultra-indie version of The Amanda Show, best watched on a laptop screen sharing the bed with the crumbs from your midnight snacks. Kati’s style is for the weird girls that spend their nights going down YouTube rabbit holes, for girls who love broccoli and touching the butts of their Ken dolls. It cannot be overstated how hilarious and captivating Kati Kelli is. There is no way to explain how a theater roared with laughter and applause for the entirety of the film’s runtime when some of these skits were as simple as dancing at the camera holding a wine glass. Like much of internet humor, you get it or you don’t and you just had to be there.

However, the allure of Girl Internet Show is not just the belly-aching guttural laughter but the underlying ideas that Kati expresses through her strange creations. There is an exploration of identity, self-esteem, beauty standards, sexuality, and much more under the surface of valley girl accents, silly wigs, and weird zooms. As a woman who spent adolescence and young adulthood with Myspace, YouTube, and Tumblr, and who struggles with body dysmorphia and identity, I felt connected to Kati and found catharsis in her comedy. It is no wonder Jane Schoenbrun, another filmmaker who explores identity through a relationship with cyberspace, recognized Kati’s unique vision and it is touching and inspiring to see this work uplifted, especially in a space like Fantastic Fest. Due to its unconventional nature, it is unsure what the future is for Girl Internet Show: A Kati Kelli Mixtape. Do yourself a favor and seek out the archive of videos still roaming the internet on her channel.

Grade: A

Oscars Prospects:
Likely: None
Should be Considered: None

Release Date: TBD