‘Mainstream’ Review: Andrew Garfield Is One of the Most Obnoxious Characters Ever in Gia Coppola’s Satire

You have to hand it to Andrew Garfield.

in “Mainstream,” a vapid social-media satire co-written and directed by Gia Coppola.

Garfield, also one of the film’s producers, throws all of his loose-limbed “Amazing Spider-Man” physicality and “Under the Silver Lake” slacker slobbiness into the role of Link, a preening, pseudo-poetic stoner philosopher who could be the grotesque lovechild of Val Kilmer’s Jim Morrison in “The Doors” and Joaquin Phoenix’s Joker in “Joker.” What’s scary is the degree to which this excruciating film endorses his obnoxiousness.

Surely we’re not supposed to like this poser, are we?To be fair on Garfield, “Mainstream” is already close to unbearable before he appears.

Its heroine is Frankie (Maya Hawke), a lonely 20-something who hates her job as a bartender in a scuzzy, magic-themed Los Angeles lounge bar, and who hopes that the videos she shoots around the city will get some likes on YouTube.

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