Sierra Burgess Is a Loser (& tatbilb) || Movie Talk

This post contains details from the movie plot, so if you haven't watched it (which I recommend you do tho), please don't read, just to avoid spoilers.

So, I'm doing this for the first time and I ain't quite sure what I'm gonna talk about, but I saw this movie the other day and I loved it and I think it brings up some really important stuff that we should all more talk about, so here I am.

Sierra Burgess Is a Loser released on September 7th on Netflix and it's a movie about this guy Jamey (Noah Centineo) who asks a girl for her number and by some interesting events, he ends up talking to this other geeky girl (Shannon Purser), thinking he's talking to the popular cheerleader. Sierra - the geeky girl - ends up basically cat-fishing him, but that's a story for later. The plot is really interesting and funny and cringy and heartwarming, but that ain't the reason I decided to write this.

Few weeks earlier, as like half of the planet, I watched To All The Boys I've Loved Before and I loved it and thought LJ was so relatable and her relationship with Peter K. was so cute and natural and yeah, basically almost everybody loved it. But then I saw Sierra and my thoughts on it are different now, because comparing these two, I feel like tatbilb is a (good) rom-com, great acting, amazing plot, but there ain't no important thing that you can like learn from it, while I personally saw a lot of things that we should be more careful about in real life in Sierra Burgess Is a Loser.

First of all, can we appreciate the friendship between Sierra and Dan, a girl and a, surprisingly enough, a not-gay-boy, please?! I think this is really important, because nowadays the world seems to think that a friendship (and I mean like best friends kind of friendship) between a guy and a girl can only be possible if one of them is gay and I couldn't disagree 'bout something more. Real friendships between guys and girls exist and are so precious and I can confirm that from my own personal experience, so that's why I loved their friendship so much.

Then, another relationship, the one between Sierra and Veronica. They begin like enemies, the bully and the bullied, but throughout the movie it's so amazing to see how they get to know each other better, share things they've never told anyone else before and just, you know, meeting one another outside the school walls and I think we should also do that. We often judge classmates or make some assumptions about them that might not even be true, because we don't get to know what they're like at home, their relationship with their parents or other things like these. And I'm glad that we got to see more from both of them and their home life and how that influenced their perspectives about each other.

And just the topics that they tried to highlight, like body shaming and body positivity, being different and not being fraid to show to the world who you really are are soo important. And ok, I know that the characters are not perfect, like what Sierra does to Jamey and Veronica helping her is not a good thing, but it's great to see that in the end they all learn some things and how they evolve and become wiser persons and we get to see them growing, because you know, nobody is perfect and we all make lots of mistakes.  And I also loved all those little moments of cringe alert or when they finally came to a point when realizing some things and the joy they embraced the new and the better, their smiles, words, hugs and all. I live for moments like these ones in literature and cinematography, for me the attention to details is a must.

There's this line that Sierra says that one time when she walks into the house crying and her parents ask her if she's ok and she says something like Do you know how hard it is to be a teenage girl looking like this?! and that honestly hit me so hard and I'm somehow grateful for that episode, because we don't get to see really often scenes between teens and parents where they bring up such things, being open (even if it comes after a series of not-so-awesome events, but after a breakdown and I seriously think that made it even more relatable and honest) and having the courage to do this.

And there was this scene with the poem she had to write as an assignment and being caught in those events she forgets about it and her scholar situation isn't so great after that. Firstly, I'm glad the introduced this scene because in other movies, yes, the characters are going to school but in the same time living this whole other life and gosh, I have no idea how they're passing every year or when  do they even find time to study. And the fact that she forgot about it and was worried about her grade, well, that's a real thing we can all relate to.

And another cliché that was broken is when she finally submits the poem/song she wrote, when the teacher said yeah, it's kinda good, but I asked for a poem, not a song (not quoting, just rephrasing what I remember) and she started walking out of the classroom I was like not this episode again, but then her teacher adds something that sounded like But it's still awesome tho and I can see the passion and pain and talent put in that song and I appreciate it and I hope things are going to be good between you and that person and then ends with I hope that one day you'll come and ask me to write you a recommendation letter, because I think you're going places (again, rephrasing, but that's how it sounded for me, more or less) and yes, breaking this cliché was so important to me, cause we don't often see teachers (in this industry) who are supportive and interested in their kids lives and willing to invest this much in their future.

So, yeah, that's kind of it. I have no idea how coherent this will be or how much you'll understand, but if you've seen the movie and/or To All The Boys, come talk in the comments and share your opinion (but without being rude, please), even if you disagree with something I said, lemme know, but do it nicely. Have a so-great day