I find it really hard to believe that Dying to Be Famous isn’t a product of the Lifetime network. From the ludicrous story to the badly written script to the overly melodramatic acting, Damian Romay’s film has Lifetime’s stamp all over it. However, it comes from the streaming service Bet+, which is owned by Tyler Perry. This is one of the most terrible movies to come out in recent times, for sure, which is not a surprise. There’s one thing Dying to Be Famous has going in its favor though—perfectly fitting into the ‘so bad that it’s good’ category. I’m not sure if you really care about the movie or its ending at all, but given you’re reading this, I guess you need some things clarified. So here we go.Â
Spoilers Ahead
What Happens in the Movie?
It has to open with a shocking murder, right? Otherwise, what’s even the point? So popular influencer Tori Cox gets violently stabbed to death at her swanky house. We don’t get to see the murderer, except for a flash of the high-heeled shoes that she might be wearing. At Tori’s funeral, we meet London Samuels, another influencer, though not as big as Tori. London is in fact trying to break onto the scene, but she hasn’t managed to achieve much yet with her modest follower count. Her overbearing mother Darlene isn’t helping much either, other than constantly asking her to cut down on her lavish lifestyle. There’s a reason for that, though, as we get to know Darlene is in a financial fix. There’s no other source of income other than a trust fund that was set up for London, but the moment she turns twenty-five, it’s going to get cut off. It’s also revealed that Darlene’s (now dead) ex-husband Aaron was a piece of work who did quite a number on her and London years ago. Aaron’s estate manager cum lawyer James, helped the mother and daughter get out, but sadly, he’s also the one who’s breaking the bad financial news now. Darlene and James having a romantic thing at some point looks very likely as well.
What Does London Do To Boost Her Career?
Imagine you’re a midlevel influencer trying to make it big, so it’s a given that you would be familiar with the top influencers of your city. But London only gets to know about Erica Mars after Tori’s death—that too from a random comment—because that’s all the writers could come up with. Anyway, Erica is one of the most popular influencers around, and she is represented by her boyfriend, Gavin Walker, who runs the Walker agency. Gavin is the man who makes you shine like a diamond, so it’s only logical that London would seek his help. And he’s also very enthusiastic about taking on London as a client, but Darlene’s not on board. That’s only temporary, as pretty soon she can’t say no to Gavin, who comes to their house after London suffered an attack at an influencer party. Even a five-year-old should be able to tell London staged the whole thing in order to get some attention, and she has been successful. Her career takes off, and soon everyone wants a piece of her.
Who is Zara, and what does she want?
The movie did drop the hint when Darlene showed concern about her daughter’s mental health to Gavin. Although it really doesn’t make any sense for her to be so eager about London becoming famous, given she was diagnosed with dissociative personality disorder when she was a child. Darlene’s excuse of just wanting London to have a normal life is not quite working in her favor either. Anyway, I have no choice but to blame it on the writers and whatever they were smoking while writing this movie.
In case the big twist of Dying to Be Famous has confused you, let me just clear it right away: Zara is an alternate personality of London, who takes over sometimes in order to protect her. London is not aware of it, so she has this spells of not remembering what she was doing. Once you know the secret (not that it was ever being protected), it’s not hard to see the whole picture. It was London (as Zara) who killed Tori. She was the one who also threatened other influencers like Kash and eventually murdered her. Seducing Gavin was also a part of the plan in order to dethrone Erica as the queen bee. Of course, Gavin is stupid enough to give into the temptation and then have the audacity to ask his girlfriend to forgive him. And Erica is ready to do that too, just with the condition of Gavin firing London from the agency. Hairdresser Jay, aka London’s best friend, had no reason to face Zara’s wrath other than posting some videos with Kash, but a character like that is always expendable in films like Dying to Be Famous.
What happens to London?Â
Thanks to the bad writing, it’s hard to sympathize with London, even after knowing she has no idea what Zara is doing. Probably that’s why the director tries too hard to bring the past into the equation. The reason London ever needed Zara was always her abusive father, Aaron. Was it a surprise to know it was her who stabbed Aaron with a pair of scissors to save her mother? Not quite, at least to me. What’s baffling is that even after all this, Darlene thinks it’s a good idea to make London an influencer. Sure, London wanted it on her own, but parenting also matters a tiny bit at least, right?
Darlene does try to handle the situation, though, by consulting the doctor. But it’s too late already as London stabs her after Darlene discovers her daughter has killed Jay. From there on, it was a matter of time till London got caught or died tragically. Well, since the police have very little to do here, the latter happens. London goes to take revenge on Gavin for firing her and ends up dead. Erica kills her as an act of self-defense. Dying to Be Famous ends with Erica and Gavin talking about the ill effects of social media, which has no relevance or anything, just like the movie.