Lord of the Fly Fest

June 20, 2022
In this riotous satirical thriller from Moldavsky (The Mary Shelley Club), true crime podcaster Rafi Francisco, 18, drains her savings to attend Fly Fest, a weeklong concert in the Bahamas that recalls the real-life Fyre Festival. Rafi feels that she has nothing in common with the other attendees, who are mostly wealthy social media influencers, but she’s desperate for access to musical guest River Stone, the subject of the next episode of her podcast, Musical Mysteries. River publicly claims that his disappeared girlfriend ditched him on a camping trip years before, but Rafi believes that River murdered her, and plans to coax a confession from him. When the attendees arrive, however, they find the island deserted. The “luxury” accommodations are FEMA tents, there’s no clean water or cell service, and River is the only talent who’s showed. Rafi hopes they stay stranded long enough for her to pose her questions, but when a girl goes missing after hiking with River, Rafi fears they’re marooned with a serial killer. While the central mystery is intriguing, it’s the outlandish influencer cast and their Lord of the Flies–inspired antics that buoy this swiftly paced, darkly funny indictment of internet culture. Rafi cues as Latinx; most others read as white. Ages 14–up. Agent: Jenny Bent, Bent Agency.