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Both Mark Zuckerberg and the movie based on his early life, The Social Network, are referenced in the new Netflix mini-series Apple Cider Vinegar. Named after the snake oil that was being peddled online by seemingly every lifestyle influencer a few years ago, the show is inspired by the rather unbelievable story of Belle Gibson, a young Australian woman who scammed millions into subscribing to her personalised diet plans. Belle claimed that she’d beaten brain cancer by consuming clean food instead of conventional chemotherapy. The truth was that Belle was never diagnosed with cancer at all; it was the neglect that she experienced in childhood that compelled her to con the world.
She’s played in the six-episode series by the wonderful Kaitlyn Dever, who rose to fame with the coming-of-age film Booksmart, and the even better Netflix series Unbelievable. In Apple Cider Vinegar, she puts on a convincing Australian accent, and finds a balance between Belle’s delusion and ambition. Abandoned by her troubled mother, Belle supposedly ran away from home at the age of 12. She gave birth to her first child when she was still a teenager, and subsequently embarked on a career as a huckster. Fuelled by a desire to be loved and accepted, she turned to social media to scratch this itch. Belle founded The Whole Pantry mobile app, through which she literally influenced terminally ill men and women into shunning traditional forms of treatment.
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Her story is juxtaposed with that of a young woman named Milla. Actually diagnosed with a rare cancer, Milla chose to enroll herself at a retreat in South America. There, she adopted a juice-based diet and consented to undergo ‘coffee enemas’ five times a day. Played by Alycia Debnam-Carey in the show, Milla convinced herself that she was cured, and began propagating the alternative therapy to others through book tours and seminars. Apple Cider Vinegar pits the two women against each other, and asks the audience to sympathise with them.
But while Milla genuinely believed that mumbo-jumbo cured her, Belle knowingly took everybody in her orbit for a ride. Envious of Milla’s success, Belle fibs her way into a meeting with a renowned publisher, spews some nonsense about her past, and somehow scores a book deal. It doesn’t take the publisher too long to identify Belle as a con-artist, but she brushes her suspicions aside. Ethics be damned. More stunningly, Belle’s passive partner Clive behaves like the guard of a Nazi gas chamber through it all, turning a blind eye to her crimes despite the stacking evidence. He’s played by Ashley Zuckerman in a performance that might remind you of Charles Melton’s memorable work in May December.
Clive is rendered catatonic in Belle’s blazing presence. She’s a parasite; a manipulative maniac who latches onto enablers and preys on the ignorant. “She doesn’t have friends; she has hosts,” says one character about her. Like The Social Network, Apple Cider Vinegar switches back and forth in time, switching between Belle’s stupendous success and the investigation into her crimes by a journalist named Justin. He has skin in the game; Justin’s terminally ill wife, Lucy, is one of the millions that Belle trapped in her web of lies. It gives him a personal reason to bring her to justice. Meanwhile, Milla’s father goes through his own share of pain, watching helplessly as she rejects chemo.
There’s a grand tragedy at the core of this story, although it’s presented as a pulp thriller. Every episode begins with a different character breaking the fourth wall and declaring, “This is a true story, based on a lie.” They also make it clear that the real Belle isn’t profiting from the show. It’s difficult to feel sorry for her, despite Dever’s human performance and the frequent references to her traumatic childhood. Not everybody who experiences difficulty decides to ruin the lives of others. But it’s possible to feel sorry for Milla, a young woman who genuinely believed that she was doing good.
At its best, Apple Cider Vinegar is a searing indictment of influencers, particularly those that haunt the oft-abused wellness category. It’s not like scam-artists didn’t exist before the internet; had she been born a decade or two earlier, Belle would have found another way to harm people. But platforms like Instagram offered her the opportunity to spread her lies and remain unaccountable. She has the personality of a cult leader in the show; someone like Amy Carlson, who believed that she was a reincarnation of Jesus Christ. Carlson started a cult named Love Has Won, and ultimately died after ‘treating’ her cancer with a controversial substance called colloidal silver. It worsened her health. Carlson died; her mummified remains were turned into a shrine by her followers. It’s a bizarre story, fascinatingly documented in the HBO series Love Has Won: The Cult of Mother God.
Apple Cider Vinegar, in no uncertain terms, also highlights the culpability of tech mavens who made billions by promising the public a better future. They’ve facilitated the spread of misinformation, the show suggests; they’ve danced on the graves of true heroes; they’ve made money off wars. This is a cautionary tale, albeit a bit too simplistically told. Apple Cider Vinegar reveals just how easy it is for the vulnerable to be waylaid, and for the shady to succeed. Folks like her are getting funded on Shark Tank on a weekly basis.
Apple Cider Vinegar
Director – Jeffrey Walker
Cast – Kaitlyn Dever, Alycia Debnam-Carey, Aisha Dee, Tilda Cobham-Hervey, Ashley Zuckerman, Mark Coles Smith
Rating – 3.5/5
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