Ori Segev and Noah Dixon's moody character piece centers on a lost soul entranced by the world of indie rock. Lennon (newcomer Sylvie Mix), the poser of the title, approaches the city of Columbus, Ohio like a field recordist. With her full mouth, long bangs, and teal-tipped hair, she looks like a toned-down Billie Eilish. Lennon records conversations and other audio phenomena on her smartphone, converts the recordings to cassette, and stores them on a shelf. It's the closest she comes to a social life. She meets up with her uptight sister on occasion, but they're not close, and she isn't in touch with their mother.
In a bid to embed herself in the local scene, she decides to start a podcast about underground music. That means balancing club shows, warehouse parties, and interviews with her day job as a hotel worker. Of the local acts, she likes Bobbi Kitten and Z Wolf (playing a version of themselves) of Damn the Witch Siren the best, but she initially focuses on pretentious up-and-comers who describe their music with terms like "queer death pop" and "junkyard bop." She archives their interviews exactly like her ambient recordings.
At a party, Micah (Abdul Seidu), a recent interview subject, introduces her to Bobbi and Z Wolf, who never speaks or takes off his wolf-head mask ("He's into animal rights," Bobbi explains). With her pink hair and red lipstick, Bobbi recalls Gwen Stefani in her early No Doubt days. While they get high together, Lennon shares a song she's been working on, and they hit it off, leading to a friendship based on mutual admiration. In private, Bobbi tells Z Wolf she finds the soft-spoken Lennon "weird," but likable.
On her own, Lennon practices the more extroverted Bobbi's looks, gestures, and makeup techniques in ways that recall Jennifer Jason Leigh's mimicking of Bridget Fonda in Single White Female. Lennon also surreptitiously takes photos of pages from Bobbi's journal and records their conversations. If she never turns into a full-blown stalker, she treats Bobbi and her friends like material with which to fill an empty shell devoid of the same level of creativity and self-confidence. Though she may not harbor any evil intent, Lennon's betrayal of her new friend's trust looms over the proceedings, contributing to the vaguely creepy vibe that permeates the entire enterprise. Then, when Bobbi catches her in an act of plagiarism, Lennon's new friends make themselves scarce.
The film proceeds to adhere to a more familiar psychological thriller template, though it's at its best when it's more ambiguous. At the outset, for instance, it plays like a satire of indie-rock types who prize fancy words and phrases over direct expression and unvarnished emotion. In the end, though, that's exactly what Lennon represents: a person who has to be someone they're not because they don't know how to be themselves. If the conventionality of the ending proves a little disappointing, Sylvie Mix makes Lennon consistently compelling, and the more effervescent Bobbi Kitten is every bit her equal as an actor and on-stage performer. Recommended.