Rating: 4/5
This review contains spoilers for the film Swiped.
Swiped is an enlightening biopic that explores the messy collision of the love, tech and power behind today’s biggest dating apps, and how one woman rose above the industry’s rampant misogyny to change the game.
Written and directed by Rachel Lee Goldenberg, the film, inspired by the real-life story of Bumble founder Whitney Wolfe Herd, premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept 9. While Swiped is a compelling, feel-good portrait of a woman who quite literally put women first, the film played it a little too safe and left me wanting more.
The film opens with an eager twentysomething Whitney Wolfe, fresh out of college and ready to make her mark. At an exclusive party, her attempts at conversation with men fall flat, met with dismissive ogles and condescending banter. That is, until she meets Sean Rad, a charismatic tech entrepreneur who actually listens and seems to take her seriously. The scene sets up what appears to be a meet-cute, but in reality, it marks the beginning of a much more complicated and ultimately toxic relationship that will shape her future in the tech world.
Set against the “tech bro” culture of early 2010s Silicon Valley, Swiped showcases Whitney’s rapid rise from Hatch Labs startup employee to the youngest self-made female billionaire. In a world where young people weren’t using the internet to date and old people weren’t using apps, Goldenberg captures the era with a blend of millennial nostalgia: business-casual clubwear, office spaces that resemble adult playgrounds, and the ever-shrinking iPhone all reflect the buzzing tech world in which Tinder was born. As the film navigates the app’s explosive growth, it also maps the ways misogyny creeps into even the most progressive-seeming spaces.
Tunnel-visioned on keeping the peace as the only woman in a male-dominated space, Whitney is portrayed with emotional complexity as she works to carve out space for herself in a world built to keep her out. But her role as co-founder of Tinder slowly becomes obsolete within a raging boys club that turns a blind eye to female users’ complaints of harassment on the app.
The film draws the audience into the harsh realities of sexism and workplace hostility, but balances those tensions with moments of triumph as we watch Whitney continue to rise. There are particularly tense moments as her contributions to the company are gradually erased, and her uneasiness grows while the men begin to intimidate her out of the position. These scenes pack a punch for any woman in the workforce who’s ever felt the need to dim her light to survive.
But Swiped doesn’t end with defeat. After leaving Tinder and filing a high-profile sexual harassment lawsuit, Whitney retreats from the toxicity of Silicon Valley and relocates to Texas.
Fueled by both disillusionment and ambition, she begins building a dating app designed to flip traditional gender dynamics. The result is Bumble: a platform where women make the first move. The film captures this period with a renewed burst of energy, as Whitney reclaims her narrative, not just professionally, but personally as well. At 31, she became the world’s youngest female billionaire to take a company public.
Despite its empowering premise and some truly standout performances from lead actress Lily James, Swiped doesn’t quite go as deep as it promises to. It follows in the footsteps of The Social Network, but trades that film’s sharp introspection for a more polished, crowd-pleasing approach. While Whitney’s story is intriguing, the film tends to keep things surface-level, glossing over some of the messier questions about tech ethics, power dynamics, and what it really means to challenge the system from within.
Swiped was inspiring, but I wish it pushed a little harder on the issues it aims to confront. The sexual harassment lawsuit, a turning point in Whitney’s real-life story, feels compressed. While we see some scenes of an anxiety-riddled Whitney being harassed online by men and friendship ties beginning to crack, the resolution feels all too quick. Likewise, her transition from leaving Tinder to founding Bumble happens at such a brisk pace that it bypasses opportunities to dig into the emotional and logistical toll of rebuilding. I wish we could have heard more stories of the affected women that prompted Whitney to fight so hard to establish the change she sought. With the last act of the film highlighting Bumble’s success, much of it is fast-tracked celebratory montages rather than digging into the challenges that come with building an app designed to flip dating dynamics.
Still, Swiped succeeds where it counts most: honouring Whitney’s resilience and vision. The film has a strong pulse, it’s funny, it’s relatable, and in its best moments, it evokes the kind of frustration and hopeful determination that fueled real-world change. It’s definitely got something to say, just not as much as it could have.
Swiped is set to premiere on Disney+ on Sept. 19.
