People You May Know

In PEOPLE YOU MAY KNOW, socially awkward Jed (Nick Thune) feels as if his life is passing him by, something he ill-advisedly decides to remedy by opening a series of social media accounts and lying about himself on them. Jed uses his professional skills as a digital photo retoucher to post a fabricated image in which he seems to be partying with the singer Usher. Even Usher (as himself), who says he was too drunk to remember the event in the fake photo, is fooled, which is why the singer invites Jed to party some more.  Acquaintance and social media expert Tasha (Halston Sage) decides to take the reclusive Jed on as an experiment. Tired of representing "C-list YouTubers and DJs," she wants to prove to her boss that it's possible to create celebrities through strategic social media lying. She argues that it would be far easier to create celebrities and represent them before they hit it big than to try to beat competitors who are also wooing already famous clients. She promises, "Jed, you are going to be the guy every dude wants to hang with and every girl wants to be with." For Tasha and her edgy firm, money, of course, is at the root of the endeavor, while clueless Jed becomes a willing if naïve co-conspirator in his quest for a more interesting social life. His newly manufactured renown puts him in contact with his high school crush, Franky (Kaily Smith Westbrook, a producer on the film), who is also misrepresenting herself as a single working actress even though she and her husband have moved to the 'burbs where she sells real estate. Jed's construct crumbles when he returns from Usher's drunken party. Still drunk, in the middle of the night, he inadvertently undoes his meticulously crafted online image by posting a photograph that has clearly been manipulated. By morning, the online world turns against him. He tries to redeem himself with more posting, this time honestly.