Right after that first time though, she gets out of her car, tearfully gatecrashes a wedding reception and pepper sprays the bride for not inviting her. It transpires that they’re not even real life friends, and somewhere in Ingrid’s grief over the recent loss of her mother, she’s started to invest more in the fantasy of the Insta-perfect lifestyles represented by the ‘stars’ she follows. There’s not a whole lot of nuance in a hashtag, and from the very start, this wickedly funny script, penned by David Branson Smith and director Matt Spicer, digs into everything their lead has compartmentalised with gusto. Her evident depression is never played for laughs, but her desire to be accepted, mixed with the familiar Aubrey Plaza-brand spikiness makes for a volatile comic mixture. From the opening in Pennsylvania, where the town is small enough that Ingrid might still bump into people who stop and stare at her because of the wedding fiasco, her change of scene brings a larger, but much more shallow perspective in LA. She’s confronted by eateries where the servers ask bullshit questions like “What’s your deepest wound?” and “How can I nourish you today?” and accepts it at face value because that’s just what the app has sold her. Ingrid’s only real ally, whether she wants him or not, is Dan, the neighbour who’s wonderfully obsessed with 1995’s Batman Forever and sincerely plans to launch his screenwriting career with a Batman spec script. If Universal made the deliberate decision to counter-programme this against Justice League, then hats off to them. Either way, Jackson is a revelation here, following up his performance as his dad in Straight Outta Compton with a marvellous, scene-stealing turn that shows formidable range. With his earnest fandom and good nature, Dan is a more noble representative of the millennial malaise than many of the other characters, especially Ingrid, but Spicer’s film luxuriates in the sun-dappled existential terror of living so superficially. Its brash satirical tone might be hard to swallow, but the jokes are really funny with it, and that helps to keep it ticking over when it sacrifices some of its edge as it veers into more serious territory later on. Ingrid Goes West is in UK cinemas now.