Anne Hathaway's Verity Uses A Massively Popular YouTube Show In A Surprising Way
by Bill Bria · /FilmAdd SlashFilm on Google:
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This article contains spoilers for "Verity."
The new psychological/sexy thriller, "Verity," is based on the novel by popular author Colleen Hoover, and it borrows some of Hoover's structure and literary devices, like a voiceover narration by the protagonist, author Lowen Ashleigh (Dakota Johnson). While screenwriter Nick Antosca's script remains surprisingly faithful to Hoover's novel, the liberties he and director Michael Showalter do take with the material are telling, especially when it comes to their read on the story. "Verity," the film is largely the same as the novel in its thematic aims, which look at the way authors are subtly (or not-so-subtly) manipulating the truth when penning thinly-veiled fiction. In the novel, this can be read as Hoover reckoning with her own profession as well as her fandom, both indulging in and worrying about the effects her work has.
The film, however, isn't so self-indulgent. Instead, "Verity" begins and ends in a way that draws a lot of attention to itself. The opening sequence is of an interview that Verity Crawford (Anne Hathaway), famous author of a series of sleazy and morally deviant novels, is giving to a journalist. A bit later, we're shown clips of Verity going through the typical media cycle as it stands in 2026, with her being interviewed on a grab bag of news programs, podcasts like "Call Her Daddy," and the massively popular First We Feast YouTube series "Hot Ones," complete with that show's real-life host, Sean Evans. "Verity" is far from the first and certainly not the last movie to utilize real-life media personalities as a way of giving its fictional characters veracity. However, the film's use of "Hot Ones" is sly and surprising, using a clip from the fictional interview to put a button on the movie's themes of manipulation and morality.
Verity demonstrates her manipulation through Hot Ones
In "Verity," Lowen is hired to take over Verity's book series as a ghostwriter, as Verity has recently become paralyzed after the drowning death of her daughter and a subsequent car accident. During her research, Lowen discovers that Verity secretly wrote a tell-all autobiography/confession, which reveals that she deliberately killed her daughter in order to retain the full attention of her husband, Jeremy (Josh Hartnett). When that failed, she intentionally drove into a tree in order to kill herself. After Verity is discovered to be fine, Jeremy suffocates her, at Lowen's insistence. Months later, Lowen discovers a letter that appears to exonerate Verity, explaining that the confession was merely a private writing exercise that Jeremy discovered and took to be real, leading to his attempted murder of her. Lowen decides to believe the letter is fake, and the confession was real. But which is truly which?
The film ends with Verity on "Hot Ones" speaking to Sean Evans, explaining how she's always been interested in the manipulation of truth. This final grace note works on several levels: One, it keeps alive the ambiguity of Verity's character and the sordid events that took place, and two, it has Verity potentially openly manipulating the public, something which "Hot Ones" could be accused of. The show has been praised for Evans' well-researched interview style, as well as the manner of making its subjects eat increasingly hot chicken wings as a way of disarming their usual defenses. Yet it could be argued that it doesn't do anything of the sort, and only adds a layer of credibility that may be orchestrated. "Verity" pokes that uncomfortable idea right in the eye, giving what is otherwise a tawdry Lifetime-by-way-of-Hitchcock thriller an extra satiric depth.
"Verity" is in theaters now.