SWIPED|A B MOVIE NO ONE ASKED FOR

In case you missed it, Swiped hit HULU this week, an American biographical drama film written and directed by Rachel Lee Goldenberg. Based on the life of Whitney Wolfe Herd, founder and CEO of Bumble.

The film stars Lily James as Herd, alongside Dan Stevens, Myha'la and Jackson White.

The film had its world premiere in the Gala Presentations section of the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, 2025, and was released in the United States on Hulu and internationally on Disney+ on September 19, 2025.

And, this film tries really hard to be The Social Network, with of course the main difference being the focus of the biopic being female instead of male. And, I can’t even fault the filmmakers for attempting to use that formula, because The Social Network made almost $225M at the box office.

But, where this movie failed the story it was trying to tell, I believe, is by trying to cram such a nuanced story into a two hour long movie. I say all of that to say that a story as complex as this one would have likely been done more justice as a mini series. Because in the first act, we have to essentially fly through Wolfe’s time at Tinder, to the point where it becomes really difficult to truly understand the nuance between her ignoring potential bad behavior by the male higher ups at the company (including her boyfriend) until it finally impacted her directly, and this is the point the film where we are supposed to feel bad, but again, it’s difficult to get there, mostly because of how rapid fire the story is to that point.

And just when you start to get your bearings, and maybe start to feel a bit bad for Whitney, we’re off again, this time at Bumble, again rapidly charging past things we should probably be deeply examining before the same issue hits the company that Whitney is working for yet again, at the end of the film.

Casting here was fine. I thought Lily James did a pretty good acting job here, and does my man Jackson White only play assholes? The small writing was fine, especially when you consider that a lot of it probably had to be made up, seeing as how Whitney didn’t participate in the production of the film (likely due to the fact that she’s still under an NDA). The directing was fine, especially for a straight to streaming biopic like this.

Overall, I’d give this film an 60% (or an 6.0/10 if you’re thinking IMDb score), a D for a letter grade.

Look, this is a film that absolutely no one was asking for. And again, it’s not the Social Network, for so many reasons. When The Social Network came out back in 2010, people were truly fascinated by the biggest social media website in the world, and how it came to be. But, in 2025, that feeling has long since left the chat. And, when you combine that sentiment with a complicated tale about a complicated figure like Whitney Wolfe, who came out of her situation a at least half a billionaire for her trouble, what you ultimately get is a film that only the dedicated bumble will find interesting enough to sit through.