By Megan Ruge
Managing Editor of Content
A reocurring theme in modern films is the inclusion of pop culture: both the best and the worst. Movies have shown email pen pals, high school bullying pre-social media and now catfishing.
In the new Netflix original “Sierra Burgess is a Loser,” we meet a high school reject named Sierra and her best friend Dan. These two unassuming and innocent teen outcasts defy their stereotypes and fight the bullies in preparation for the upcoming dance – at least, that’s what the trailer makes you think.
However, this is an incorrect assumption. This film isn’t uplifting or provoking in any way: it’s a letdown and if you chose to finish reading right here, then at least you will know this film is not worth your time.
“Sierra Burgess” tried to make an uplifting film about a heavyset girl who struggles with her visual appearance and her identity, but instead made a creepy high school romance film that glorified catfishing and cyberbullying as a form of revenge. This film, like many in its genre, fell short on delivering the message it was meant to deliver and lost sight of the importance of the lesson.
From the beginning of the film, we catch Sierra examining herself in the mirror, paying close attention to her midsection. This introduces the idea that she might have an issue with the way she looks, but there is no further evidence to support this fact. We then see Sierra at school, Sierra with friends and finally Sierra standing up to her bullies. This shows us that she might be confident with herself and may give us hope that she is going to defy her bullies and make the best of her school year. This only lasts for about 15 minutes, when she receives a mysterious text from a cute boy who thinks she is someone else.
That’s when the creepy catfishing begins: instead of telling this boy she isn’t a spunky brunette cheerleader, she pretends she is, which is messed up on many levels.
After a decent amount of deception, Sierra’s lies finally catch up to her, but in the end the boy still wants her, yet again glorifying the idea of catfishing in fear of your insecurities.
Another terrible aspect of the film is that it glorifies the idea that you have to change yourself to be with a guy.
This is shown when the cheerleader, Veronica, learns college level material to impress a college guy who, in the end, didn’t care at all whether she was smart or dumb, but was just looking for a hookup.
Another example of this is the way Sierra hides behind a phone and thinks this guy won’t like her for who she is because he is attractive and athletic.
This makes it seem like Sierra is only confident until it comes to men – then she is insecure about everything. Sierra even has a meltdown about her insecurities towards the end and it feels so out of the blue.
Another positively revolting thing the film does is use cyberbullying as a form of revenge. Sierra hacks the Veronica’s Instagram account and posts embarrassing screenshots to her account, knowing 20,000 people will see it.
The film uses this moment as a source of drama and suspense and does get the desired outcome, making something so seditious look okay.
The right way to go about something like this would be like in “Mean Girls.” In this film, when the boiling point isreached, the girls receive consequences for their actions. This showed that no matter how glamorous their slander looked, it was wrong and would not be rewarded.
This film could have worked as a movie about a girl with insecurities meeting a boy through text and not telling him who she is, but not pretending to be someone else either, almost like a modern day “You’ve Got Mail.” This movie tried very hard to be a romantic comedy but mostly remained borderline creepy.
The only redeeming characteristic of the film was Dan, Sierra’s best friend. Dan is the character that, in most films like this one, would be the “gay best friend.”
But instead, this film doesn’t use that trope and doesn’t make it seem like he is in love with her. This is just an honestly platonic friendship, an aspect that could have saved the whole movie if it had been given more space to breathe.
Dan’s character was so good, in fact, that I wished the whole movie was about him. This film was an absolute flop and, like other movies that try to employ a pop culture lesson, failed to deliver on its promises. I give this film one star.
