Fantasia 2020 Review: The Columnist, Black Comedy Turns the Tables on Internet Trolls

By Leila Latif

The Columnist is a black-as-night comedy from Dutch director Ivo Van Aart. It tells the story of Columnist Femke Boot (Katja Herbers), who seeks vengeance after she is relentlessly trolled and threatened on social media. 

Femke calls for decency, and respectful discourse on the internet but, in turn, is met with terrible abuse: an army of keyboard warriors calling her a paedophile, and for her to be raped, murdered, and get Aids. She is attempting to write a book, but at every turn she encounters obstacles; her unsympathetic publisher digs at her for missing deadlines and, seemingly, no one supports her politely outspoken or politically correct mission. This is further exacerbated by her writer’s block, leading her to spend hours every day obsessively checking Twitter and Facebook, and working herself up into an indignant frenzy. Her friends and colleagues are dismissive of the harassment, and the police don’t take even the death threats seriously. The film frames telling a woman to stay off the internet to avoid being harassed as akin to telling a woman to dress modestly to avoid being raped. 

When she recognises her next-door neighbour as one of her tormentors, the tables are turned. She starts obsessively stalking him on the internet, and discovers a rabbit hole filled with Trump loving, immigrant hating, Islamophobic misogyny. He seems no happier than when he is in full black-face and dressed as Holland’s controversial Christmas character, Zwarte Piet (Black Pete). Despite his in-person pleasantries, his internet persona continues to spew hatred at Femke until she takes matters into her own hands.

Much like Alice Lowe’s comedy-slasher Prevenge, this film walks a very fine line tonally, balancing satire, horror, tragedy, and comedy. The central performances are all phenomenal, which balances the narrative’s early, earnest relatability with the later unhinged twists. Katja Herbers is fantastic as Femke, unironically outraged by the rudeness of the trolls with zero reflection on her own violent indiscretions; she mines her growing bloodlust for laughs without ever going too broad with her performance. Bram van der Kelen is also excellent as her charming albeit unobservant boyfriend, a successful horror novelist who dons a dapper goth hipster persona with black nails, eyeliner, handlebar moustache, and a penchant for cooking in elegant waistcoats. Achraf Koutet is also excellent as Tarik Boss, the most vicious and difficult to track down of her devoted trolls, in a brief but moving appearance, conveying so much pain and emotion within a few moments.

The main problem is the film’s middle act. The Columnist shows its cards too early, and then becomes a little monotonous. With the violence and the internet abuse already at a nine by the end of the first act, there isn’t really anywhere to go. Amusing montages aside, the death count piles up without the stakes increasing. By the midway point, we are in Martin McDonagh territory, where even the good guys are sadists, muddying the satire and, at times, it becomes unclear who, if anyone, we are supposed to empathise with.

Thankfully, this is forgiven thanks to a powerful final act. Femke’s all-white, figure-hugging suit and boots for the final confrontation is the best styling in a horror film I’ve seen since Florence Pugh’s flower gown in Midsommar (2019). The final few minutes packs a real emotional punch and, despite the film’s larger flaws, leaves you shaken and reaching to delete your Twitter account.

The Columnist was reviewed as part of our coverage of Fantasia 2020.

Leila Latif is a Sudanese writer based in London. She has written about films, race, food and their intersections for The Guardian, Little White Lies, The BFI, Eater and Sight & Sound. She is a horror film junkie who will defend Scream 4, The Evil Dead Remake and season 6 of Buffy with her dying breath.

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