Molly Vs The Machines is initially told from the point of view of a social media platform, telling us how it treated young teenager Molly Russell like a commodity, rather than a human being, before she took her own life on November 21st 2017.
This also brings in detailed information from her father, Ian Russell, and her friends from back then meet up to talk about her, today.
Ian also tells us how she went to bed the night before, telling him, “See you tomorrow morning“, as if nothing was wrong, but ultimately, the inquest concluded that “she died from an act of self-harm whilst suffering from depression and the negative effects of online content”.
A reconstruction of the Coroner’s court case is shown to us, too, to add to the harrowing content within this documentary.
For many reasons, I’m so glad that social media wasn’t around when I was at school. All those wankers you see at school? You know it would just carry on into the evening. I’m glad I didn’t loads of people into my Facebook friends list. One time in the office, before the days of hybrid working, a colleague said to me, “Ooh, did you see what (name) put on Facebook last night?!”
I replied, “I don’t care!”
I don’t need work in my life once I’ve left for home.
High-up bods at Facebook and Instagram are shown harmful content that goes against their rules, but which was not taken down when reported. The problem comes that even when you do report it, the decisions are made by bots. It’s a fucking shitty way to run a company, and I’m fucking sick of it. To that end, we’re even shown how the likes of Facebook changed their methods from simply friends sharing content, to Big Tech data-mining the users, and effectively controlling what you see, and encouraging you to see more of it.
However, it does get easier as an adult to get to a point of using social media, where you think, “I’m completely wasting my time”, and put it down for a while.
Overall, Molly Vs The Machines is an engaging look at everything surrounding social media and Molly Russell’s tragic situation – and is essential viewing, but it is also a bit on the baggy side.
You can buy Shoshana Zuboff‘s book, The Age Of Surveillance Capitalism.
Thanks to our friends at Channel 4 for the screener prior to release.
Molly Vs The Machines is on Channel 4 at 9pm tonight. After broadcast, each episodes will be on All 4.
It’s not yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD, but when it is, it will be listed on the New DVD, Blu-ray, 3D and 4K releases UK page.
Running time: 83 minutes
Release date: March 5th 2026
Channel: Channel 4
Format: 1.78:1
Director: Marc Silver
Producers: Kat Mansoor, Natalie Humphreys, Marc Silver
Inspired by the book “The Age Of Surveillance Capitalism“, by Shoshana Zuboff
Scripted by Shoshana Zuboff, Marc Silver
Music: Saya Gray
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.