Review of Sierra Burgess Is a Loser (2018) by Aurora D — 12 Sep 2018

There is so much I loved about this movie. It's the perfect exploration of what happens when girls are pitted against each other and told that beautiful = valuable. Admittedly, I'm a sucker for Cyrano retellings (and stories where girls are taught to hate each other, and then they decide to get to know each other instead), but there's a lot to love here outside of that.

The awkward scenes felt painfully real. Both of the female characters were given a lot of depth--we're not supposed to love Sierra and hate Veronica, or vise versa. Both have good qualities and both make mistakes.

Honestly, the movie felt like it was more about their friendship than the romance, which is another reason I loved it. I did feel like Sierra could've apologized more in the end, for various reasons, and people far more qualified than I have discussed the issues with pretending to be deaf.

Outside of those two issues, I really loved this movie. It's not meant to advertise or excuse Sierra's behavior. It's meant to make us examine the standards of beauty we enforce on women, and how it makes them treat themselves and others.