By John Corrado
The 2026 Hot Docs Film Festival runs from April 23rd to May 3rd in Toronto
Director Tommy Avallone’s flashy documentary Myspace is a look at the rise and fall of the original social media platform, taking us back to the internet culture of the early to mid-2000s. Avallone explores the history of MySpace, which was founded in 2003, tracing it back to being the birthplace of the internet as we now know it.
For better and for worse, MySpace birthed influencer culture through users like Tila Tequila and Jeffree Star, and launched internet celebrities like comedian Dane Cook and rapper Mickey Avalon. The site also launched the career of Katy Perry, and allowed Taylor Swift to initially develop a personal relationship with her fans, responding to every comment in the early days of her stardom.
Avallone’s film also touches on how MySpace was at the vanguard of early digital political campaigns, allowing Joe Anthony to build a platform that helped get Barack Obama elected in 2008, first through running a fan page and then being asked to run the presidential contender’s official account. But the site’s downfall was quick, exacerbated by a sale to corporate overlord Rupert Murdoch, and eventually losing ground to Mark Zuckerberg’s rival platform Facebook.
In addition to many of these formerly prolific Myspace users, Avallone also interviews co-founders Chris DeWolfe and Aber Whitcomb. The other key figure behind the site, Tom Anderson – aka “MySpace Tom,” whose smiling profile picture became an early meme – declined to be interviewed, but his lore looms large in the background. The involvement of DeWolfe and Whitcomb makes this documentary feel like the officially sanctioned version of events.
Avallone is very much focused on showing the pop culture side of it, delivering flashy montages and appearances from a myriad of figures from the MySpace days. On those terms, Myspace is enjoyable enough as a glossy portrait of internet culture in its infancy. But his film doesn’t really get in to the darker side of social media and what it has become, and is more focused on simply delivering millennial nostalgia for what it paints as the glory days of the internet.
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