Becoming a content creator was going to be a fun pastime for me, or so I thought. In 2018, my wife and I split up, and I needed something to fill the void. It was always quiet in the house without my ex-wife and daughter around. Like many who have been through this before, I started looking for hobbies to get through the week. That was when a friend recommended I start a Twitch channel.
And that was a fun start, as I met people online who had the same interests as me. Soon, I was streaming three nights a week, making two to three videos for YouTube a week, and then making a weekly TikTok video. I became a Twitch affiliate, a YouTube Partner and a member of the TikTok Creator Fund within the first three years of jumping in. Not bad for a side hustle.
However, I soon found out that it wasn’t all roses. Instead of this being a hobby and something to take my mind off my problems, it transformed into a job. I had to make videos just to stay relevant. I became a slave to the all-mighty algorithm. Before this, I was just having fun making the content.
Now, I find that I have to basically act in front of the camera. I have to pretend to always be happy and excited about whatever I am talking about. I lived two lives: the fake one in front of the camera and the real one behind it. It grew tiring, but I knew that the audience out there did not want to see a depressed middle-aged man whining about his life. It was exhausting to keep it all in check.
This is probably why I wanted to check out New Year, New Me on Hulu.
This film centers around a group of friends, one of which is a famous content creator in the movie world. The girls plan a New Year’s Eve party at a house owned by Alexis (Suki Waterhouse). The remaining girls are Danielle (Carly Chaikin), Kayla (Kirby Howell-Baptiste) and Chloe (Melissa Bergland). As the party extends into the night, the girls become more and more annoyed with Danielle’s insistence on making videos. In these moments, Danielle seemingly takes on a very fake persona, one that the others despise.
During a game of “Never Have I Ever,” Alexis confronts Danielle about her bullying and partial blame for the suicide of a girl named Kelsey. When Danielle attempts to move on from the question, Alexis and the other girls attack her, holding her hostage until she takes responsibility for the girl’s death. As the new year settles in, Danielle is pitted against her former friends on a night none of them will ever forget.
When watching New Year, New Me, I was kinda drawn in by the character of Danielle. Like me, she seemingly had to live two separate lives. She had the YouTube influencer life, where she puts on a fake smile and boisterous attitude to put on the type of show her followers love. But her friends want the “real” Danielle. Unlike me, however, Danielle had put on the facade so much, she seemingly forgot how to just be herself.
I found myself getting into that same situation many months ago and it was at that point I decided to step back from all of the pressure and just be myself again. Danielle would have done herself a lot of favors going back to that form. She couldn’t make the change, and it cost her over the course of the film.
As for the movie itself, I found New Year, New Me boring. Being a horror film, the basic building blocks were there. However, it missed the part where we are supposed to have someone to rally behind. We need a heroine or hero, but New Year, New Me doesn’t offer either.
The girls in the movie all come across as flawed. I have already stated how Danielle couldn’t leave her faux life behind. Alexis comes off as being extremely obsessed with trying to knock Danielle down a few pegs, almost to the point of being jealous, rather than righteous. Kayla and Chloe both come off more as followers of whoever is in charge, rather than being their own stand-alone characters. No one in this film feels likable. And without someone to like, I just found myself not really caring who lives or dies.
New Year, New Me gets two out of five stars. While I relate a lot with the struggle Danielle experiences, it wasn’t enough to save this movie from being boring. While it is a short movie, it just lasts forever due to the story being dull. If you are looking for a horror movie to fill some time or provide background noise, then you might like New Year, New Me. If you are looking for an interesting horror film, find something else to fill your time.