Feb. 5, 2024

KSI: In Real Life (2023)

This documentary showcases the life of UK’s biggest social media star KSI, as it showcases the notable events of his career from 2021 to 2022. With added context, the film offers an emotional yet engaging perspective to his internet persona that is KSI, his personal life and relationships with friends and family. By: Dylan Low

Genres: Documentary

 

Distributor: Amazon Prime Video https://www.primevideo.com

 

Length: 90 mins

 

Producer: Barnaby Coughlin, Donna Ferry, Sophie Grant, Hannah Ramsey, Louis Theroux

 

Production Companies: Mindhouse Productions

 

Description

 

This documentary showcases the life of UK’s biggest social media star KSI, as it showcases the notable events of his career from 2021 to 2022. With added context, the film offers an emotional yet engaging perspective to his internet persona that is KSI, his personal life and relationships with friends and family. 

Spanning up to 90-minutes long, the film documents the two-year timeframe of the UK influencer icon between 2021 and 2022, It talks about moments such as him performing at Reading & Leeds Festival, recording his next third album, his relationships with family and girlfriend, following him and his brother Deji's boxing careers, and his UK tour, which concluded with a concert at Wembley Arena. The doc also reflects on the past, entailing his origin story of his famed career, his humble beginnings back in Watford, and his adoption of popular social media platform YouTube. 

 

What makes the documentary stand out compared to others is the raw authenticity in every moment, with all the issues that KSI (real name JJ Olatunji) puts in the spotlight: money, loneliness, trust, insecurity, generational trauma and the contradicting differences between who his current identity and expectations of himself. Unlike his online persona KSI who is confident and charismatic, he portrays himself differently off-camera.

 

To the viewers watching, it will definitely be a riveting experience hearing about JJ’s honest opinions about himself and the people around him, finding out what drives his sheer determination in pursuit of success. 

 

KSI: In Real Life is filmed more similarly to a traditional film compared to a documentary. The aspect ratio takes on more of a theatrical “letterbox” approach different from the adapted-for-TV “widescreen” format most documentaries have, and awards the film with a compelling outlook which suits the ambitious yet authentic personality that is KSI.

 

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