SCREEN | Lily James Gets Side–'Swiped' x TIFF 2025

"I don't want to sell people things they don't need."

Toronto International Film Festival

Lily James stars as tech (co-)founder Whitney Wolfe Herd in director Rachel Lee Goldenberg's telling of the true-ish, The Social Network-esque story of scandal and triumph behind both rival dating app giants, Tinder and Bumble. In the recent popular trend of the biographical business drama, Swiped tracks the dual rival apps' shared history of development, controversy, and success in the tech industry.

Scored to many notably popular hit songs of the early-2010s, we follow Wolfe's meteoric rise in the bro-centric, male-dominated ecosystem of Tinder against the pervasive sexism she experienced before venturing off on her own to start the more women-oriented Bumble. Much of the first half is standard, relatively known fare involving her toxic boyfriend/co-founder Justin Mateen (Jackson White) before leaving and settling her sexual discrimination case.

Things don't get real until Dan Stevens (donning another thick European accent) enters the picture as another founder to complement the energetic Myha'la Herrold as her only memorable friend/co-worker. Goldenberg, Bill Parker, and Kim Caramele's script tries to both stick to the usual template and explore the tricky, but also more exciting, dynamics of Wolfe's personal history.

A vulnerable James is easily, by far, Swiped's compelling element and raises the entirety of the film's reason for existing beyond the ubiquity of the niche tech biopic drama. She does her best to create Wolfe's arc, going from the "cool girl" surrounded by guys to the powerful female-forward tech founder in the "girlboss" mould relatively smoothly on screen.

Swiped premiered at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival as part of the Gala Presentations program and is available to stream on Disney+ in Canada (and on Hulu in the U.S.).


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