Swimming With Sharks

Hollywood is a fickle place, one where to get to the top many will do anything necessary to achieve their dream….even if it requires a little darkness. Created by Kathleen Robertson, the film “Swimming With Sharks” delves into the corporate underbelly of Hollywood as newcomer Lou Simms (Kiernan Shipka) becomes the latest intern at Fountain Pictures and will do whatever it takes to reach the top and impress her boss Joyce Holt (Diane Kruger), no matter the consequences. But even at the top, infested waters run deep. 

Making her childhood dreams come true to work in Hollywood, Lou Simms is doing just that as part of the latest intern group at Fountain Pictures. Immediately, Lou is determined to get into Joyce Holt’s sights. From convincing writer Meredith (Erika Alexander) to sell the rights of her book series to Joyce after a previous rejection to seducing Joyce’s husband Miles (Gerardo Celasco), Lou will stop at nothing to reach the top. Her plan works and Joyce starts to lean more on Lou, much to the dismay of Joyce’s assistant Travis (Thomas Dekker). But when murder becomes part of the plot and Joyce’s tumultuous work relationship with her boss and Fountain Pictures owner Redmond (Donald Sutherland) threaten to topple everything, soon we learn that maybe Lou is not as innocent or honest as she seems.  

While the dark underbelly of Hollywood trope has been quite overplayed and overused throughout TV & Film, Robertson’s take on it is a refreshing one. And with Kiernan Shipka helming the role of the young ingenue with a dark past, it somehow works in a dark and devious way. The storyline may be cliched and overdone, yet the casting is important and manages to keep it all fresh, especially when you introduce notable names such as Diane Kruger and Donald Sutherland as part of the cast along with familiar TV faces such as Shipka (“The Chilling Adventures of Sabrina,” Thomas Dekker (“Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles”) and Finn Jones (“Game of Thrones”) to round out the lineup.  

And let’s face it, no one could deliver Joyce Holt the way that Kruger does, with the vulnerability and ice-queen persona all in one line. Because while we are invested in the happenings of Lou and how she will make Joyce notice her, Joyce has her own battles to fight and darkness to overcome. Whether it be her fertility complications with husband Miles or clawing her way to the top of Fountain Pictures and taking Redmond out of the picture, Joyce is a fighter through and through…something that Lou seems to admire.  

Yet it is Shipka that truly steals the show. With her prior work leading the “Sabrina” series, her experience with darker, complex characters gives her the depth and breadth to tackle a role like Lou Simms. In demure vintage attire and a dark past of mental history, Shipka delivers the barb and sass of Lou’s persona without ruffling a hair out of place. And when her sights are set on Joyce, the drive for success is relentless.  

Will Lou’s past catch up with her, or will she rise to the top? Who’s ready to try and stop her? Or is Joyce more in tune to Lou’s darkness than we know? 

You can catch the whole first season of “Swimming With Sharks” on Roku.