Objectively Good

Rating: 8/10 (1 May 2020)

I looked at the negative ratings and looked at the other ratings on different movies by those users and from what I gather most of the people leaving 1s are more into either teen cringe or action movies (giving Too All the Boys I Love and Extraction 8s and 9s is...), but this is an arthouse film and an objectively good one. It has solid acting, but I have somewhat of a love/hate relationship with it in the way that the relationship is presented as opposed to the books. I understand why it was nominated (it won) for the Oscar for best writing adapted screenplay, but it has its faults in the way they handled the complexity of the relationship as it developed given the age difference. That being said all other aspects were solid. It's not about identity politics since a lot of people seem to think "this is not a film for the gay community, it must be for jewish community" but it's not intended to be a "film for representation" that usually comes of forced like in most blockbuster or commercial movies, it's just a coming of age film about sexuality, and people may find the concept of the house guest sleeping with the homeowners son and them just being okay with it "unrealistic", but not all societies are built like US and UK and they're obviously dealing with a completely different set of taboos. This film needs an open mind and knowledge that this is naturalism.