Netflix take a big fat ‘L’ with ‘Sierra Burgess Is a Loser’
Runtime: 105 minutes longer than it has any right to be.
Sierra Burgess Is a Loser is a movie about a girl successfully catfishing a boy. An inherently creepy concept which plays out even creepier on screen thanks to a script that feels mediocre at best and straight up non-consensual at the worst. Our hero, Sierra Burgess, is uncomfortable with her body image and is bullied by the mean girls at school for being both academically inclined and also having a bit of extra body weight. Sierra dreams of going to Stanford, where life will be better. But throughout the film, she does some horrible things in order to get the guy she likes — and suffers no consequences for those actions.
That in itself isn’t terrible, we all like movies about anti-heroes, but only when they’re self-aware. Sierra doesn’t understand that what she’s doing is wrong over the entire course of the movie — even when it’s pointed out to her. She is pretending to be someone else, a concept which gets taken to extreme lengths, in order to make this guy fall in love with her — and then he DOES? We all make mistakes, especially as young people, and I accept that, but our mistakes do have consequences, and for Sierra there are none, which renders this movie instantly pointless.
By the way, Shannon Purser, as good an actor as she is, could hardly be called ugly by any non-movie standard. One of the main comments attached to her is that she looks like a lesbian which just confused me really. Do all lesbians look the same? My ex-girlfriend and I did look quite alike but I promise that’s because we’re both vain, not because all lesbians share the same features.
Sierra Burgess is a Loser would be at least palatable if it wasn’t a love story. The heart of the story clearly lies in the growing friendship between stereotypical mean girl Veronica, and Sierra. If I was watching a teen movie about a mean girl and the girl that she bullies slowly becoming friends, I might have enjoyed it a whole lot more. Instead, we have a movie with a protagonist that is fine at the beginning but becomes very unlikable very quickly — and bordering on psychotic when looked at through Jamey’s eyes. She is catfishing this boy to the point where she HIDES UNDER HIS CAR AND KISSES HIM WHILST HE THINKS HE’S KISSING SOMEBODY ELSE. If someone did that to me I don’t think I would come to the conclusion that ‘yes, I should date this person’.
It’s a shame that the script and premise of this film are so rotten. The four main actors are attempting to give earnest, complex performances that encapsulate the teenage experience but unfortunately they have absolutely nothing honest to work with. Noah Centineo delivers an excellent sense of self-consciousness as Jamey and RJ Cyler is a breath of fresh air in every scene he appears in as Dan — Sierra’s only friend before she gets chummy with Veronica.
Veronica is the most interesting character in the entire film. Her insecurities are honest and relatable. There is one really interesting moment when she has just been crying over her lack of ability to grasp Greek philosophy, then turns to Sierra and says; “We can send Jamey a nude if you like?”
Whilst they don’t actually send a naked photo, she turns her face to the best angle, makes use of her crying eyes to make herself look sultry and takes photos of herself on Sierra’s phone, understanding that this is something that she’s good at. It’s such a raw moment that felt authentic and heartbreaking.
I, along with many other girls, have spent my whole adolescence hating my body. I’m really only now as a 22-year-old coming to terms with that. Sierra Burgess is not a movie about how one has to become skinny to be loveable, but it is one that says it’s okay to do horrible things to someone else in the name of your own insecurities. We all hate ourselves for something, and I’m sick of movies justifying terrible behaviour because of revenge or jealousy or anything else stemming from it. I’m sick of lazy writing pitting girls against each other and teen love stories where we’re supposed to root for people who do horrible things. Our actions have consequences, and a cute song about a sunflower does not fix that.
And look, I know it’s a little picky of me to say, but they spell Jamie’s name “Jamey” and that really is just the most unacceptable thing.
