LifeHack
In Ronan Corrigan’s deeply worrying and kinetically entertaining screenlife thriller four teenagers embark on a bitcoin heist from the security of their bedrooms.
Clockwise: Georgie Farmer, Roman Hayeck-Green, Yasmin Finney and James Scholz
Image courtesy of Screenlife Liverpool.
by JAMES CAMERON-WILSON
When is a film not a film? There is an argument to be had that the oeuvre of the screenlife phenomenon – narratives unfolded entirely on laptop and iPhone screens – are not worthy of the moniker of movie. And yet there is so much flying across the screen in LifeHack – all the icons, folders, weblinks, emojis, dialog boxes, etc – that it takes a giant cinema screen to take them all in. Of course, this is a very niche form of entertainment – yet, considering the colossal number of viewers glued to their screens night and day, it is a very big niche. Older viewers just wouldn’t have a clue. But for those who know a screencast from a window snip, LifeHack is a hugely entertaining ride. Both a cautionary tale and an invitation to further explore the wonders of the web, Ronan Corrigan’s fast-paced digital thriller is a relevant and eye-opening experience.
Our four protagonists, segregated in their bedrooms surrounded by teenage detritus, inhabit a netherworld of violent video games, AI, malevolent memes and chatrooms that offers a cornucopia of limitless distraction. Fuelled by an endless supply of dubious meds and boredom, Kyle, Sid, Alex and Petey are united by their digital knowhow. At the outset, the quartet amuses itself by luring a scammer into their web, only to turn the tables on the black hat by threatening him with terrible retribution – there really is a hierarchy of predatory hackers that hack other hackers. For anybody who has discovered an unwanted intruder on their computer, be it in the form of a spyware operator or a trojan trickster, this early scene delivers a jolt of gratifying schadenfreude. Then Kyle (Georgie Farmer) surfs into darker territory and reckons that he has the wherewithal to hack into the crypto wallet of a tech billionaire. The art is to just skim off the top of the profit margin, to pocket a micro-sum of currency so that nobody even notices, say to snatch a mere £100k…
A nodding acquaintance with the workings of the internet will obviously benefit the viewer of this exhilarating heist thriller, although much of the digital legerdemain must be taken on trust. Yet Kyle seems to know enough of what he speaks, types and pastes, that we are drawn into his audacious plan as he juggles the tools of his illicit trade. To his credit, the writer-director Ronan Corrigan doesn’t talk down to his audience but expects them to keep up, as he draws us ever deeper into his cyber labyrinth, spicing up the action with pacy editing and a terrific soundtrack. As the camaraderie of the bedroom sitters coalesces as the plot thickens, so the suspense at times is almost unbearable. The film also shows just how vulnerable we are to outside actors, should they wish to invade our private space and scurry off with our mother’s maiden name and the name of our first pet. Worse, it takes a mere twist of a wrist to screenshot our internet history and hack our bank of passwords. Note to self: never put anything on your computer that you don’t want the rest of the world to know about.
Featuring Georgie Farmer, Yasmin Finney, Roman Hayeck-Green, James Scholz, Jessica Reynolds, Charlie Creed-Miles, Cael King, Jill Winternitz.
Dir Ronan Corrigan, Pro Timur Bekmambetov, Joann Kushner and Sasha Kletsov, Ex Pro Michael Fassbender, Dmitry Eremeev and Maria Zatulovskaya, Screenplay Ronan Corrigan and Hope Elliott Kemp, Ph Ciaron Craig, Pro Des Sehar Kidwai, Ed Ronan Corrigan, Sasha Kletsov and Aleksandr Kletsov, Music Two Blinks, I Love You, Costumes Sophie Daniel, Sound Sam Auguste.
Bazelevs Company/Screenlife Liverpool-Screenlife Liverpool/Vue.
97 mins. UK. 2026. UK and US Rel: 15 May 2026. Cert. 15.
