A Haunting Look at the Price of Relevance

MOVIE REVIEW
The Ego Death of Queen Cecilia
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Genre: Thriller
Year Released: 2024, 2025
Runtime: 1h 25m
Director(s): Chris Beier
Writer(s): Chris Beier, Daniel Wolfman
Cast: Jo Schaeffer, Sam Stinson, Holt Boggs, Steve Brudniak, Adriana DeGirolami, John Merriman, Akasha Villalobos
Where To Watch: shown at the Austin Film Festival and Dances With Films N.Y.

RAVING REVIEW: If a fall from grace used to come with front-page headlines, now it’s more likely to be buried under an outdated YouTube banner and a forgotten TikTok soundbite. THE EGO DEATH OF QUEEN CECILIA takes that modern tragedy and crafts it into a gripping, sometimes bleak, sometimes darkly funny drama that pushes its central character to the brink of obscurity—and then keeps going. This isn’t a story about losing relevance. It’s about how dangerously easy it is to think relevance is all you have.

Cecilia (Jo Schaeffer) isn’t just a former influencer. She’s a once-adored digital queen whose kingdom has long since crumbled. Her brand is fading, her fans have moved on, and she’s now juggling delivery gigs and online giveaways that double as scams. Shady schemes and increasingly risky choices have replaced the once-glossy life of luxury sponsorships and viral acclaim. What keeps the story compelling is that her downfall isn’t the whole picture. With growing unease, we watch the obsession rise again by any means necessary.

Schaeffer gives a debut performance that doesn’t feel like a debut. Her work here has a rawness that doesn’t lean into melodrama or overplaying. Her portrayal of Cecilia is subtle, with most of the weight resting not on monologues or grand gestures but in glances, pauses, and the occasional crack in her strength. What’s particularly impressive is her balancing delusion and vulnerability without tipping into caricature. The film does not attempt to paint Cecilia as a hero—it simply gives us a woman stuck in her world of past glory.

Rather than spoon-feeding a linear tale of rise and fall, the film’s structure easily shifts between timelines. We catch glimpses of Cecilia’s past life—her days on influencer panels, basking in the applause, declaring her online royalty. However, the film intentionally leaves some ambiguity: was her fame ever that big, or did she inflate it in her mind? It’s a clever move that adds another layer to her desperation. If your greatest achievement was a lie—or at least not as impressive as you thought—how far would you go to reclaim it?

As the narrative explores the story, the psychological drama edges into crime thriller territory. Cecilia’s growing need to revamp her online persona leads her to blackmail and eventually into murky dealings that draw the attention of genuinely dangerous people. Holt Boggs as Matthew and Steve Brudniak’s Jimmy enter the story, bringing menace without becoming over-the-top villains.

What works exceptionally well is the commentary on modern visibility. THE EGO DEATH OF QUEEN CECILIA doesn’t mock influencer culture so much as dissect it. There’s no big speech about “the dangers of social media,” but the film understands that the drive for constant validation can morph into something self-destructive. It’s less interested in finger-pointing and more invested in asking why attention has become synonymous with identity.

The story behind the film’s creation also adds to its texture. Director Chris Beier’s initial version of the feature was reportedly unsatisfying, prompting a significant reworking of the material. What began as a short film morphed, evolved, and reshaped through trial and error—echoing Cecilia’s attempts to recapture past success. Scenes shot years apart are edited together seamlessly, and the film’s final cut reportedly came after six different endings were tested. That level of persistence from the creative team bleeds into the narrative—this is a movie about not giving up, even when maybe you should.

Production-wise, the film makes a lot from very little. Shot across Texas and parts of Mexico, the story moves between small-town Americana and border-town tension with an authenticity that never feels forced. Guerilla-style sequences, including one shot at an actual border crossing, ground the story in something tangible. That sense of immediacy helps elevate the stakes without needing overblown action.

The film's strongest moments come not from shock or spectacle but in quiet scenes—a failed pitch to an influencer agency, a lonely vlog filmed with shaky confidence, a giveaway contest meant to reignite her brand. These moments hit because they’re real. They speak to a broader anxiety that many people feel but don’t admit: the fear of being forgotten, of not mattering anymore.

THE EGO DEATH OF QUEEN CECILIA isn’t out to offer catharsis. It’s here to sit with the discomfort of that fear, to prod at the consequences of self-worth built on a stranger's applause. It asks hard questions without easy answers, and that’s exactly why it works. This isn’t a neat redemption arc. For a debut performance, for an indie production stitched together across years, and for a story so laser-focused on one woman’s unraveling, it delivers in nearly every way. It’s messy in ways that feel earned. Imperfect, but human. And in the age of endless content, that humanity is what sticks.

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[photo courtesy of WET DENIM PRODUCTIONS]

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