‘Swiped’ TIFF Review: Whitney Wolfe’s Rise in Tech’s Toxic Playground

In the always chaotic and unpredictable world of dot-coms, dating apps form almost a universe of their own. Bringing strangers together virtually did not begin with the internet, but the arrival of the wild early-2000s web —and later the more corporate version of the following decades— sparked exponential growth in the format. Swiped revisits an era —the early 2010s— when dating apps were booming but had not yet broken through a crucial barrier: young users.

Lily James plays Whitney Wolfe, a woman who would become famous for innovating—though not without struggle—within this fraught terrain. When we meet her in 2012, Whitney is a very young woman sneaking into investor meetings, trying to get funding for her dream: an app to connect donors with orphanages. It’s a noble idea, but no one pays attention. A chance encounter in a parking lot with Sean Rad (Ben Schnetzer), the head of an incubator with several apps in the works, leads her, after a few turns, to join his company.

In one work meeting, she suggests renaming the incubator’s failing dating app. Thus, Matchbox becomes Tinder. And it is Wolfe—at least in the version told by Goldenberg’s film—who spearheads its push among college students, a demographic that had until then rejected virtual connections. Using her knowledge of fraternity and sorority culture, Whitney manages to make Tinder catch on with younger users, and the app quickly explodes.

Success, however, comes with problems. Whitney becomes romantically involved with Justin (Jackson White), one of the company’s partners, a relationship that proves extremely toxic. At the same time, she faces mounting complaints from women—both within the company and on the app—about men’s aggressive behavior on Tinder, from unsolicited intimate photos to abusive comments and other widespread toxic practices. When Whitney tries to raise these concerns with her partners and bosses, she meets resistance, forcing her to make some drastic decisions.

The film, from the director of Unpregnant and the Valley Girl remake, skillfully portrays—like many other stories about the rise and turmoil of tech giants—the chaotic, youthful, and toxic environment of such companies. Unlike other narratives of this kind, the story is less about corporate rise and fall (both Tinder and a later company Wolfe founded, whose name won’t be spoiled, remain active) than about women’s lived experiences in a bro culture where female voices were ignored and opinions often dismissed.

Even after overcoming her initial obstacles at Tinder, Whitney encounters similarly macho cultures in other workplaces. These environments are full of everything from adults acting like horny teenagers to predatory figures, and even false “allies” hiding dubious intentions behind polite façades. That’s why Whitney’s achievements in her career feel doubly significant: she made them against the current, in an atmosphere that did little to welcome women in key roles at such companies.

The film takes a lighter approach when it comes to the deeper, more unsettling aspects of dating apps. Structured as a feminist story of personal resilience, the script largely skips over questions of dependence and the psychological toll these platforms can create. But Swiped does not aim to plant a radical flag about its subject. Its concern lies more with the idea of making these apps safer, better regulated, and more civil—particularly for women.

Yet, by the time the film arrives—amid political shifts in the United States and Big Tech’s deference to Donald Trump’s policies—many of those safeguards against toxic online and workplace behavior may have eroded again. If the real world has grown increasingly poisonous, it’s hard to expect the apps built within it to be any better.