Inside Urša Menart’s ‘Everything That’s Wrong With You’: Influencer Tragedies Fuel a Darkly Comic Film

Just before the COVID‑19 lockdowns, Slovenian filmmaker Urša Menart stumbled on a disturbing online trend: young women crafting fabricated tragedies to capture fleeting attention. The pattern, which she describes as “a digital performance of suffering,” became the seed for her new dramedy Everything That’s Wrong With You.

Why “Everything That’s Wrong With You” strikes a chord in the age of influencer grief

Menart says the film mirrors how audiences abandon daily routines to follow micro‑influencers, even when the stories are pure fiction. The paradox of empathy for a lie fuels the narrative, turning satire into a mirror for society’s appetite for melodrama.

“We are watching people mourn lives that never existed, and we love it,” Menart told Reuters.

The script, written during the first weeks of quarantine, blends bleak humor with a critique of social media’s emotional economy. A scene shows a protagonist scrolling through a ↑ 73% spike in follower count after posting a fake breakup, underscoring the absurdity of digital validation.

From viral gimmick to cinematic confession

Menart’s production team used a modest ↓ 15% budget cut to focus on intimate storytelling, proving that scarcity can sharpen creative focus. The film premiered at the Ljubljana International Film Festival, drawing praise from AP News for its “unflinching look at the performative sorrow of the internet age.” As audiences leave the theater, many report a lingering unease, questioning how many of their own online sympathies are built on illusion.