Sierra Burgess is a Loser
Sierra Burgess is a Loser (2018), written by Lindsey Beer and directed by Ian Samuels, seems to scream first time film. My initial reactions were, too many cuts, it feels rushed, lighting was natural or fluorescent until they get into a “party-like scene,” the score is often not used to it’s full potential is used well when it is used at all. So that’s it, this movie has a lot of potential, I can see the ideas behind it all, but I do not believe they were pulled together well enough or in their fullest, strongest way. It wants to look into the real-life situations, kind of like how Eight Grade (2018), written and directed by Bo Burnham, did. Sierra Burgess is a Loser seems to believe it can ride on the story alone, but it’s a story I see a lot of problems with. It’s essentially the same as a lot of older movies which just had the genders switched where the men would trick and harass women into “falling in love with them” in the end, because they’re really not all that bad a guy.
Sierra Burgess is a Loser was marketed on Netflix as a modern Cyrano De Bergerac. Cyrano being one of my ultimate favorite plays, I’m going to be critical here. The biggest issue with this movie and main difference between Sierra Burgess is a Loser and Cyrano De Bergerac is the intentions of our main character, how they go about obtaining what they want, aka their morality and compass, the focus of the movie itself, and the implications that subconsciously leaves on the audience.
Cyrano wants Roxanne to be happy, his intentions are in no way to trick her or to get her to become “his” after she has said she does not love him romantically, but as a cousin. Yeah, I know. But he loves her still, so he uses his words to help her develop a love for Christian, which is misguided act, yes, because Christian does not have the capabilities for her to love him fully. Meanwhile, Sierra (played by Shannon Purser) wants to have the boy for herself, so she tricks him into falling for someone else with a beautiful face then pulls the sheet out from under him. to reveal a great ole surprise of catfishing! The shared complex being they are both “ugly” and use their words and someone else’s pretty face to woo someone they’re in love with.
Cyrano does not trick Roxanne. He uses his words to woo her because it makes her happy, just so she can be happy, but when it comes time for a more physical interaction, he lets Christian go forth because that is who Roxanne believes herself to be talking to. He protects her imagination and does not jolt her out of it or abuse it or her trust in it. Cyrano protects Christian and Roxanne’s marriage allowing them to pursue the love they both believe to have. When Roxanne loses Christian, Cyrano does not swoop in and claim this love for himself, he professes nothing, until the very end, which is a selfish thing to do to make her go on living knowing it was he she really fell in love with but now he is dead and she is alone still, because he wants to protect Christian’s image in Roxanne’s heart and mind. Because that is her love, and he loves her so he wants her to be truthful to her heart and happiness. And that is the tragedy of Cyrano De Bergerac. He is such a flawed man and this is painful for us to watch.
Sierra uses Veronica’s (played by Kristine Froseth) face to catfish this boy, and then kisses him when his eyes are closed. That is just straight up sexual harassment. The situation reminds me of some of the hijinks movies that came out the 80s which were nothing but just that, something we need to get away from normalizing in film and T.V. no matter who’s on either end.
Cyrano De Bergerac is a tragedy of a man who loves a woman but does not see that his using his words with Christian’s physicality is not the right way to go about showing his love. He does not allow himself to move on from her love, but he still does not try to possess it. He just wants to see her happy. It is a tragedy because he does all this in such a wrong way, and Roxane is left with this horrible complex. That is the focus of the play. While Sierra Burgess is a Loser glorifies Sierra’s actions, implying that when someone is not interested in you, it is ok to use someone else’s identity to catfish them into believing they are getting into something with that other person only to reveal it has been you the whole time. It implies that you will get rewarded for it if only during the process you are yourself and in the end be honest about what you’ve done, because this boy forgives her and is like, ‘nah that wasn’t wrong or weird at all. I have no personality or emotion myself.’
It is ok to get to know someone without the ability to see each other physically, it can actually be really nice, because then you might fall in love with who they are, their soul rather than their face, but you cannot use someone else’s physical identity and name to do so. As I said earlier, it is something we need to seriously and consciously get away from normalizing in film and television. We have often seen it is male characters, and heavily normalized it there, but all around, we need to stop. Whether we see it or not, these kinds of stories glorify those actions, and subconsciously attach to our psyche and how we think.
Jan. 4, 2019