'He Slid Into Her DM's' Fails to Wow Critics

         On September 28, 2024, Lifetime premiered 'He Slid Into Her DM's', which has received predominantly positive reviews from critics. In the film, "Popular high schooler Berni's social media influencer life unravels as her best friend betrays her, she struggles for more followers to support her single mom, and her boyfriend dumps her for ignoring him due to social media obsession." The ensemble cast includes Courtney Thorne-Smith, Kane Parks, Stella Gregg, Lee Rach, and Connor McRaith. But what did the critics say?

        Hotchka says, "Another Saturday night, another ‘Ripped from the Headlines’ movie courtesy of the Lifetime network, which alerts us at the start of the movie that while this is based on a true story the rest of the movie is an entire work of fiction. It would be interesting if Lifetime actually provided viewers with some type of reference to back up the film, but this really could be any account of someone being stalked. The whole DM thing (and for anyone not up on their social media jargon, that means Direct Messages) could, as the opening text states, simply be a plot device to tell this story. Unfortunately, it all falls into the land of cliché with some frustrating plot elements that have become completely stereotypical at this point." Adding, "Besides the ridiculous plot points, there is also an issue with casting. Not that Stella Gregg isn’t fine as Berni, but — no offense — she looks less like a 17-year-old high schooler than Olivia Newton-John did in Grease, and she was 29! Gregg is 23. She doesn’t act or look like a 17-year-old. Sierra Fujita also does not look like a teen. Why not just make this a story about college-age young adults? Berni could have still lived at home with her mother as a college student, or Courtney Thorne-Smith could have played a sympathetic professor or counselor, since she got an executive producer credit and had to be in the movie. There were just so many ways they could have written the story to make it feel a bit more authentic and frightening. As it stands it’s just another by-the-numbers drama that’s low on thrills. Director Alicia Coppola — no relation to the other Coppola movie-making family — is best known for her acting gigs on shows like Jericho, Why Women Kill and Empire, and she does a fine job of making the best of the script she was given (she also cast her husband Anthony Michael Jones in the role of the police officer assigned to the case). But the casting and the script just makes this one of those TV movies you need to watch with a room full of people to make it a lot more fun."

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