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AshersGirl83
Reviews
The Falling (2014)
Waste of time I'll never get back...
In all honesty, I only popped this on because I loved Maisie as Arya. Didn't pay much attention to plot summary so wasn't sure what I was gearing up to watch.
Essentially: teen angst, best friend sexes up big brother, Maisie not happy, best friend gets preggers (or, thinks she is?), best friend has lots of random fainting spells, then doesn't wake up from one of them.
So, you have a bunch of teenagers ill equipped to deal with grief and a strict stiff upper lip school setting (60s) that lacks any kind of empathy in assisting the girls with processing events.
Maisie then randomly starts fainting, knock on effect is that all the other girls end up doing it too, getting progressively worse / increasing in frequency until they all appear to be having choreographed simulations of epileptic fits. It's like an epidemic. I think what the film is going for is the suggestion something supernatural is afoot.
Truthfully I think it's just a bunch of teenage girls rebelling against an oppressive, repressive environment and faking their symptoms without having a direct conversation confirming that's what they're doing.
Oh, and there's an incestuous creep factor which appeared utterly pointless other than inferring Maisie was even more unhinged and determined to "become" her dead friend in terms of popularity/leading the pack so to speak.
The Sleeping Room (2014)
Slow burn....
I liked the plot premise but it could have been executed better.
The film is fairly slow paced until the end where it really picks up the pace. Though she stops the pimp from killing the perp, only to then essentially sign the perps death sentence herself.
One of the things I often enjoy about British films is that the characters are realistic and not glamourised. They dress and speak like every day people you'd actually meet. They swear. They goto the bathroom. They're not scared to be real and human. (I do like American stuff but it's oftimes white washed with that Hollywood shine, even if it's trying to be gritty - side note, are Americans actually LIKE that?!)
Anyway, it was a good effort. I enjoyed the film though the ending didn't make sense to me and I think they could've embellished more on the backstory and tied some more loose ends up. The side plot of her mothers murder suicide didn't really get explained or properly linked in to the main plot.
Endless Love (1981)
Endlessly Creepy
The book is very well written (and completely different).
I'm not sure if a part of this is I wasn't quite born when this was released but I'm confused. They're all Americans who speak like posh Brits.
But creep factor - I kept expecting it to turn into full blown soft core pornography. The father had an unhealthy obsession with his daughter and I was uncomfortable watching them. The mother smiled when watching her daughter have sex?!
They're both acting like their home is some bohemian hippy commune for what appears to be their teenage children's entire school.
I can deal with teen love / obsession. Not so much the creepy incest vibes - and I wasn't expecting that from an 80s movie! I figured I was setting myself up for a cheesy but sweet "Pretty In Pink" style watch. Not so much!
Beautiful Disaster (2023)
Uhm....
I'm just confused. I don't have words for how confused I am.
I gave it 3 stars purely because I laughed out loud quite a bit at the absurdity of it all (particularly the multiple After series references!)
But I'm left wondering whether this is supposed to be a parody? Because absolutely everything about it felt like a parody, but the books.... Whilst not the works of a literary genius, definitely were not a parody!
I couldn't take any of it seriously. I can't even tell if the actors are good or bad because I have no idea what the director was gearing for here.
It amused me. But I am completely baffled as to what I just watched!
After We Fell (2021)
Teenagers ARE Dramatic
First off, apologies to the teenagers / young adults who may read this. At your age, hearing adults say things like "you'll understand when you're older" drove me nuts, because I thought I knew it all.
Decades on, I've figured out I knew very little but also, here's a secret.... You never know it all no matter how old you get!
Anyway... this movie, and the franchise: it's about two teenagers, hormonal, intensely "in love" - who haven't actually yet learned the art of communication. They're emotionally driven. They get jealous. They fight. They have sex. They read betrayal into every minuscule thing. They're still growing, making mistakes, hopefully learning but it takes a good while.
Actually casting my mind back across the mists of time to my first "one true love", and thinking about a lot of my friends first "one true loves", as teenagers it's pretty accurate. Though none of us got offered cross country promotions, that's wildly far from reality.
Healthy? Not so much.
Toxic. Yup. And both of them are at fault, not just Hardin.
Realistic: I can still remember the intensity of my teens and early 20s, and that of my friends - so, oddly and aside from the whole teenage promotion thing, yes.
Teenagers can be wildly self involved (sorry teenagers!) and struggle with emotional regulation and perspective - BECAUSE THEY ARE STILL LEARNING BOTH.
I speak as someone who once was a teenager who thought the world began and ended with my first love. And oh, we fought, and we made up, sometimes multiple times in one night, and when we were good, we were great, but when we were bad, it felt like the world was burning and me with it. Now - as an adult with perspective I know it wasn't how I'd define "true love" in the slightest. But first love (or first lust, depends how you look at it) is.... Generally intense and kinda crazy.
So I don't hate the movie. Neither do I love it. It's an easy watch. If you're looking for deep and meaningful, it's not for you. If you're looking for easy to follow, occasional eye roll/giggle, and a bit of nostalgia to the intensity of being a teenager, then it's not so bad.