"Sierra Burgess Is A Loser" Movie Review

By: James Southworth
Rating: 1.5/5 Stars

Twitter users might remember that there was a controversy a couple of months ago surround the release of a new Netflix original TV show called "Insatiable". People called out the teaser for promoting a false narrative about how fat people are unattractive, and that once they undergo this physical change they suddenly become the most popular person in the world. The reaction may have been a little extreme for a mere trailer, but after watching some of the show I can confirm it is hot garbage. There were people combating this harmful show with a Netflix movie they claimed was more accurate to an overweight person's experience, entitled "Sierra Burgess Is A Loser". It starred a person who was not wearing a fat suit (unlike Debby Ryan), and the trailer reactions to it were far more positive. I watched this movie out of curiosity to see if it was deserving of the initial praise it got. It was not. This film is an insulting "love story" with some of the weakest writing and directing I've seen in a film this year.

The best thing about this film is, far and away, the cast. In fact, this movie would've been nearly intolerable if it weren't for the talent in front of the screen. A film of this awful caliber did not in any way deserve such a good group of young performers. Most will know Shannon Purser from her brief time on "Stranger Things", but in this movie she gets the chance to be in a lead performance. Even though Sierra as a character is profoundly hateable throughout the film's run time (more on that later), Purser still somehow finds a way to bring some charm to this character. I am confident it's entirely due to Shannon's talent that Sierra is even bearable to watch. She brings some nuance to the character, and makes her way more sympathetic than she deserved to be. Just a quick disclaimer, any problems I have with Sierra, which I'll be touching on soon, have absolutely nothing to do with Purser. They have everything to do with the writing. Kristine Forseth is the best part of this movie as Veronica. I appreciate the amount of depth she brought to the popular girl stereotype. Her performance was often touching and heart warming as the viewer saw her unveiling the reasons for why she was always so bitter towards others. Noah Centineo is really likeable as Jamie. Even though his character really doesn't have much to do, he still tries his best to bring his character beyond just being "the main character's love interest". Alan Ruck puts a lot more than he needed to into Sierra's dad Mr. Burgess. I honestly wish he'd been on screen more often, as he played his role with an impressive amount of conviction and believability. The only other element that works decently in this film is anything to do with Veronica's story line. She has the far more compelling character arc in this movie, and she's also the one that's more sympathetic. In fact, I think that Veronica should've been the main character in this film, as director Ian Samuels clearly knew what he was doing with her. He makes her so much more than this "popular mean girl" stereotype, and instead gives her a rather touching arc of becoming more accepting of herself beyond just her good looks. Most of the moments where she was by herself in the movie were good, and I generally liked the relationship between her and Sierra. However, like most everything else in this film, the friendship between Sierra and Veronica is ruined.

While I was watching the movie, I became more and more irritated with the idiotic writing choices that were being made. This movie is trying to be way too many things at once: a love story, a coming of age story, a friendship story, a self-acceptance narrative. Pretty much none of these work besides the fairly solid friendship arc. The worst one is by far the love story. Unfortunately, the love story is the biggest chunk of the movie. The romance between Sierra and Jamie is completely based on lies. Jamie actually first flirts with Veronica, who gives him Sierra's number (which she got from a poster Sierra posted at school saying she was available for tutoring). So, Jamie texts this number thinking it's Veronica. Sierra decides to play along and act like she is Veronica. She does this for almost the whole movie. Like characters point out over and over in the movie, she's catfishing Jamie. This is a pretty scummy move, and yet the movie goes out of its way to romanticize this fake relationship. Any time the two characters are talking on the phone, upbeat pop music plays and both are equally happy. The movie even almost seems to imply that the relationship between them is real, or at least that it's real to Sierra. This could have been an interesting commentary on digital age relationships if there was a degree of darkness or realism attached to it. But instead, for a majority of the movie this false, crime laden relationship is put in an idealistic sheen. This makes Sierra out to be a very unlikable and delusional main character. She doesn't consider heavily the real implications of deceiving this boy she likes, and she only comes out and tells him the truth when a situation forces her to. Sierra even almost stalks Jamie in a way, watching him and Veronica date in the background. On one of the dates that Veronica and Jamie go on, the two are about to kiss. Sierra is hiding underneath Jamie's car. Veronica tells Jamie to close his eyes. Then, she gets Sierra out from under the car, and Sierra, not Veronica, kisses Jamie. Jamie obviously did not consent to kissing Sierra; he thought he was kissing Veronica. This is deceit on another uncomfortable level, perhaps even nearing sexual assault in a way. And yet, this is still looked at as a good thing. Sierra is not held accountable by Jamie or anyone else for her actions. Instead, she gets the guy and pretty much everything else she wants by the end of the film. This movie is, quite simply, tone deaf. Samuels does not understand that pretty much every action Sierra does in the love arc makes her a creepy, catfishing, stalking antagonist. She is not a sympathetic hero. This should have been a horror film, straight up. There were many moments in the movie which creeped me out, and that was clearly not meant to be the intent. It feels all wrong, and very messy.

The friendship story in this movie is just as infuriating, and in some ways even more so. Since Veronica was the best part of this movie, I really didn't like how Sierra treated her in the movie's sort of climax. At the football game (which Sierra, Veronica, and Jamie are all at), Sierra is furious because she saw Veronica kissing Jamie. Why should she be mad? After all, she's been acting as Veronica this whole time. Veronica has every right to be in this relationship; Sierra has chosen herself to be a bystander who only lives in the relationship in a despicably vicarious way. So, because Sierra is unreasonably angry, she hacks into Veronica's Instagram account and ends up posting a DM that Sierra had with her ex-boyfriend who broke up with her by text. The intent was clear: Sierra wanted to get revenge on Veronica and humiliate her. This is yet another reason piling up on top of all the other reasons as to why Sierra is not a sympathetic protagonist in any sense of the word. These embarrassing messages are even posted up on the football stadium's projector by another student. Even though it was not Sierra who did this, it is still ultimately her fault. Veronica, of course, gets mad, and it looks like the friendship between her and Sierra is over. She even says to Sierra that her ugliness is not in her looks. Once again, this is something that I agree with. The movie tries to tack on this narrative at the end that the reason Sierra has been hiding her identity from Jamie and she did the horrible thing to Veronica is because she does not think she is conventionally attractive. This is a poor excuse on the movie's part to give Sierra some unearned sympathy points. But still, Veronica ends up being friends with her by the end. She accepts this excuse, even though Sierra basically destroyed Veronica in a public setting and without any good, valid reason. This is just idiotic, and made me cynically laugh for probably about the fifth time at this film's dirt poor writing and directing.

I feel like I could rant about this disastrous film almost all day. But I'm just going to stop here, because this film isn't worth any more time. It's really disappointing to. You could see threads of potential in places. If this movie had been more focused on the unlikely friendship between Sierra and Veronica, as well as the two's journeys in trying to understand one another and themselves better, I think we could've had a truly a great movie on our hands. Instead, what was delivered is a real mess with a problematic central story line that romanticizes relationships built on falsehoods. It also gives us one of the most unlikable main characters I've ever seen, and I know that wasn't the film's intent. It clearly wanted us to feel for Sierra's plight, but she was never held accountable for the wrong things she did and she ultimately got everything she wanted, even when she didn't earn any of it. This film is yet another strong argument for why a lot of straight to Netflix movies just aren't that good. Skip out on it, and don't believe the positive hype.