Profile

Looney Tunes fans out there may fondly recall the 1957 short “Show Biz Bugs,” in which vaudevillians Bugs Bunny and Daffy Duck engage in fierce applause-bait competition, ending with Daffy bringing down the house by literally immolating himself. (An act “that no other performer has dared to execute.”) Noting the crowd’s reaction, Bugs tells Daffy the crowd is ripe for an encore, but Daffy’s spirit, ascending to the Pearly Gates, replies, “I know, I know. But I can only do it once.”

There has been more than one motion picture that takes place entirely on a computer screen—indeed, Wikipedia now has a page devoted to the sub-sub-genre—so the thing can, in fact, be accomplished more than once. But should it be? This was a question I asked as I got that sinking feeling about ten minutes into “Profile,” wondering if it would indeed be an entire “computer screen movie.” Which indeed it turned out to be.

This is especially disappointing given the director of this ostensible thriller—in which an investigative journalist, named Amy and played by Valene Kane, skates on thin ice by masquerading as an Islam convert in order to attract ISIS recruiters—is directed by Timur Bekmambetov. The filmmaker who made you believe a sports car could successfully drive on the wall of a circular room, in one of those “Watch” movies, either “Night Watch” or “Day Watch,” I don’t remember which. In any event, a man capable of such feats of cinematic lunacy ought not be limiting himself to one screen. Bekmambetov’s pictures, which also include the possibly sublimely obnoxious 2008 “Wanted,” are object lessons in the thesis articulated by Tony Zhou in his landmark video essay about a different filmmaker, Michael Bay: “We are really visually sophisticated and totally visually illiterate. We can process visual information at a speed that wasn’t common before, but thinking through what an image means, not so much.”

In “Profile,” the images mix real documentary footage with fictional social media and news organization posts. And meaning is elemental—a simplistic rush meant to induce viewer panic. While also being incredibly on-the-nose.

One thread, intertwining with Amy’s interactions with a charming ISIS dude named Bilel, involves a young English woman who went ISIS and wound up stoned to death. A memorial video shows the girl playing, on acoustic guitar, a version of Radiohead’s “Creep.” Some minutes later, navigating between her new terrorist friend and a bossy editor and more, Amy cries out, “I don’t belong here.” Get it?

While it’s difficult, obviously, to bring nuance to a topic so immediately repellent as ISIS terrorists brainwashing Western women and turning them into sex slaves, the filmmakers seem only interested in propagating and amplifying stereotypes. And not only about terrorists. The handsome Shazad Latif, as Bilel, is styled to be a snack to Western eyes, what with his luxuriant hair and aviator sunglasses. He’s bluff and pushy and a bit of a bore, starting in on Amy/Melody to get down to Syria right away. “You’ll never want to leave,” he says, showing himself standing near a swimming pool in one exchange.