Review of Sierra Burgess Is a Loser (2018) by Jennifer F — 14 Oct 2018

Like all teenage movies, dramatic and cliché scenes are prone to be seen; it's practically inevitable. There's always an over-exaggerated theme that's filled with ludicrous actions and even more insane plots. Of course, the new movie that's been a craze among the millennials as of early September 2018, is the movie Sierra Burgess is a Big Loser. This particular movie is just like the common cliché wherein the nerdy or geeky teen falls for an athletic peer and has the misconception that they have no chance with said peer. However, regardless of the repetitive and overplayed theme, the message and certain scenes that the overall film contains gives it an interesting and entertaining appeal to its audience.

Apart from an intriguing plot, a film should always make an impact on its intended audience, whether it be through a meaningful message or a cliff hanger that leaves you yearning for more. In this case, the movie Sierra Burgess is a Big Loser has a meaningful hidden message that in a way addresses a conflict among the teenage millennials. As a relationship between Sierra and Jamey brews, so do the lies that uphold the façade Sierra must follow to hide her identity. While they gain feelings for each other, Sierra concludes that although Jamey shows interest in her, it's only because of the belief that she's another person, more precisely, Veronica. Sierra, physically speaking, is chubbier and strives for academic excellence rather than social affirmation based on physical standards. Because of this, she feared telling Jamey the truth regarding her identity. Regardless, Jamey finds out and soon comes to the realization that while he was attracted to Veronica for her beauty, he liked Sierra's personality more, which led to him confessing that he was more in love with the connection they shared than what she looked like. This particular situation relates to current social standards and therefore holds a meaningful message for the teenagers and the ones that follow after; regardless of one's physical features, what matters most is the personality and whether they're able to connect to their partner in a special manner.

Although a significant message is a great attribute to a film, so is comedy and entertaining moments that cause laughter. This particular teen comedy has quite a few scenes that depict the current generation in a manner that's pretty much hilarious. Throughout their conversation, Sierra and Jamey would exchange memes and selfies that were quirky, mostly on Jamey's behalf as he was the only one that was capable of sending selfies in the first place. These moments were the highlight of the film apart from the message as they felt both relatable and humorous in the way that most teenagers take multiple tries at a selfie and try to perfect every detail down to the lighting and angle. This specific detail was portrayed when Jamey was attempting to send his shirtless selfie to Sierra. Before trying to take the picture, Jamey even went to the extent of doing push-ups as well as spider-man push-ups and then posing in front of the mirror. In order to get the perfect shot, the main male lead took two different selfies until he perfected the pose. Therefore, the saying third time's a charm perfectly applies.

Despite the comedic moments and profound message, the overall theme of the film was lacking. There are hundreds of movies that portray this cliché theme of geek or nerd falling for the jock which leads to a redundant plot that produces the same particular ending. As there are several other films with the same structure of events, the film lost a touch of its appeal causing a disinterest because of its absence of uniqueness. In order to avoid this, the antagonist could've been the one to stay with Jamey, creating a plot twist that's dramatic yet surprising. However, since that wasn't the case, the two impressive attributes it does contain can still overshadow a minor flaw within the movie.

Overall, the film Sierra Burgess is a Big Loser is entertaining and impressive although a twist in its cliché theme might've heightened its distinctiveness among other clichés. Apart from switching up the theme, I believe that adding in more comedic scenes is a must as it is supposed to be a teen comedy. Regardless, while there were minor details to be fixed, the overall quality is close to perfection.