We all had such high hope’s for Netflix’s Sierra Burgess Is a Loser, but unfortunately the film fell short on too many fronts to garner the same kind of adoration we recently devoted to To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before.
What we wanted was another heart-warming teen romcom that swapped problematic genre tropes for progressive lead characters and left us feeling entirely pleased, but what we got was a series of icky plot points that did not do justice to its star Shannon Purser.
*Spoilers Ahead*
Since it’s Friday evening release, the resounding consensus from viewers is that Sierra Burgess Is a Loser fails as soon as it tries to make catfishing cute. From the non-consensual kiss with her love interest/victim Jamey to the truly astounding cyber-bullying of Veronica, Sierra’s actions verge on sadistic.
Besides the fact that the impending sense of doom plagues the audience experience of the film, Sierra’s unearned forgiveness makes the ending feel disconcerting.
https://twitter.com/formoftherapy/status/1038787726596694016
Basically the message that we get is that Sierra’s insecurities excuse her cruelty because she deserves our pity. She does not appear to learn, grow or really apologise for her behaviour and honestly, she is not a likeable character because of it.
In its rush to excuse Sierra’s actions, it reinforces her sense of victimhood, and the notion that being fat is the cause of all her problems, and all her mistakes.
It’s more insidious than outright fat-shaming. But it’s just as gross.
— Jenna Guillaume (@JennaGuillaume) September 8, 2018
It’s very disappointing because at the start of the movie Sierra is set up to be a majestic intelligent, self-valuing character, and we were ready to see her get a love story that characters like her don’t ever get in romcoms. But the follow-through failed.
Sierra was not only unkind, but there was no evidence of her deep intelligence in neither her remedial banter with jamey (“what’s your favourite movie”???) nor her final English submission.
Why is Sierra considered the class prodigy when there is a black female student dishing up some powerful, racially woke slam poetry that literally makes Sierra’s sunflower song look like a beautiful but juvenile diary entry?
Aside from every other problematic thing in Sierra Burgess is a Loser, I think my biggest qualm with the movie was the fact that Sierra and Jamey kept texting pictures of animals making weird faces back and forth and both found it funny… have they never seen memes??
— kait ?️ (@goldenstarsoul) September 9, 2018
Despite the plot problems, Shannon Purser absolutely shined in the role and gave us hope that we would finally see Justice For Barb.
But the film failed to handle the issue of appearance-based-insecurities with the care and sensitivity it deserved, and now we need Justice For Shannon. I hope to see Purser appear in more leading roles where she’s not undermined by poorly thought out narrative choices.