Stories about CEOs and their rise to fame have been told time and time again. But the new film Swiped has a unique challenge that gives it a little edge over its biopic competition: The subject of the film couldn’t talk to anyone about it.
Swiped tells the story of Whitney Wolfe, the CEO and creator of the dating app Bumble. But what many people don’t know, mainly because she could not talk about and still cannot thanks to an NDA, is that she was one of the co-founders of Tinder as well. And, from the accounts detailed in Swiped, she was the reason Tinder really existed in the first place.
Whitney (Lily James) moves to California with a hope that she can rise in the tech world and make a difference. The issue is that she wants to make the world a better place and doesn’t really know how to do that without selling her soul to the tech world and the darker parts of it. Which is basically how Wolfe became the CEO she is today.
What makes Swiped fascinating is the knowledge that a good majority of it is what director Rachel Lee Goldenberg, who co-wrote the film with Bill Parker and Kim Caramele, learned through research. Wolfe was part of a Hatch Labs and, according to Swiped, ended up being the one to name Tinder and brought the app to college campuses that would, ultimately, make it the success that it is.
But her time with Hatch Labs ended when her relationship to co-founder Justin Mateen ended. Through a lot of pain, Swiped shows a story of resilience and power and what it takes to learn from your mistakes and be a better person and CEO through Whitney’s story.
At least it isn’t just another biopic
What I think works in Swiped‘s favor is the fact that the movie gets to have creative freedom because it cannot have the subject involved. Wolfe’s NDA prevents her from talking about her time at Tinder which, as the film details, means that when news came out of her leaving and the subsequent lawsuit she issued against the company, she could not publicly talk about it or defend herself. Hatch Labs did not have the same issue.
And while it means that we don’t have the insight of Wolfe, it means that the movie doesn’t have to lean one way or another. It is the writers interpretation of what happened based on their research and that’s kind of amazing when you think about it. Yes, there are some choices, like having Lily James and Dan Stevens wear contacts to fit their characters instead of letting us suspend our disbelief. Quite frankly, I didn’t know Whitney Wolfe enough to know what color her eyes are.
But it is a fun little time capsule at the end of the day. The minute it said that it was 2014 and I heard Charli XCX’s “I Love It,” I was transported back to college and I ultimately think that’s where the movie shines. It isn’t a perfect biopic and it isn’t one of the more serious attempts at telling these stories but it is a fun and interesting look into how Bumble came to be.
(featured image: Bronwyn Gayle/20th Century Studios)
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