This review contains spoilers, just thought I should warn you before I discuss any further…

Here’s the “go away now, unless you don’t mind plot/film spoilers” Film Poster

And another one, just as an extra warning…

Ok now I can talk about it freely without ruining it for anyone.

First of all let me start off by saying that this was a good film, I may not watch it a million times over but I can tell you that this is in fact a quality film.

The premise is simple: A girl’s life get’s complicated when her best friend starts dating her brother.

The way it is executed is simple.

The girl and her life is not-so simple.

This is not your ordinary teenage drama/comedy, it’s more complicated than that, it has depth and can be quite moving at times…however I have quite a bit to say, both good and bad about this movie, most of it involves the plot.

So this girl, Nadine, is a bit of a loner, not necessarily by choice, she’s an introvert who just happens to also be a bit anti-social, but not necessarily by choice. Other kids made fun of her when she was a kid, so she never had any friends until Krista who came along out of the blue and they both became friends instantly. This friendship lasts a long time until at 17, Krista starts dating Nadine’s brother, her and her brother have a complicated relationship so when her friend does this, she gets angry/sad/frustrated/etc and basically asks her to choose between being friends or having her brother as a boyfriend…you want to guess what she picked? The latter of course. Now here is where I start to have a bit of a problem with the movie, Nadine basically resents Krista for dating her brother and in a way she is represented as the selfish one…which is not exactly accurate.

Personally, I think that both Nadine and Krista were being a bit selfish, despite this film’s attempt to portray Nadine as the one with the problems and the one that needs to fix herself, Krista isn’t so great of a friend, herself. You know the saying “bros before hoes”? Well I don’t think it applies to just guys, I think it applies to all relationships and basically says that friends before boy/girlfriends. Krista should’ve been more considerate and Nadine perhaps should’ve been a bit more open to this. Now for the brother, Darian. Darian dates his sister’s best friend, his sister’s ONLY friend and he’s okay with that? Yes he has problems and he wants an escape and Krista makes him feel free BUT he has other people, he has friends, his sister is basically left between awkwardly third-wheeling and being alone at this point. All three characters are basically looking out for themselves and not other people when it comes to this relationship and that’s what this film doesn’t necessarily put out there, instead it’s the complicated brother who feels bad for dating his sister’s best friend but can’t do anything about it because he feels like she’s literally his only escape from his shitty life, the complicated sister who basically had nobody to talk before and now has nobody because of this.

Also, I get that Krista is dating Darian but don’t they hang out separately, with their other friends, etc? It doesn’t appear so in the film, it’s like they’re glued to each other’s sides, there hasn’t been a single alone moment between Nadine and Krista in which Nadine didn’t resent her and in which Krista didn’t apologize for dating her best friend’s brother. The more I think about it, the more this seems like a silly teen movie, but the way it’s executed isn’t

What to say about Erwin…he’s adorable. You’d think he’s the rebound friend and I guess he does start out as one, but he ends up being a better friend to her than current Krista ever was.

On the up side, this movie has a good representation of not-so-great mental health, realistic representation of teenagers in this day and age and of course Nadine’s teacher who honestly brings more to this movie than some other characters.

So to sum up my main criticisms:

Positives:

• Good representation of mental health
• Realistic teenagers

Negatives:

• Do people in relationships have to be together 24/7?
• It basically calls Nadine the narcissistic and selfish character when in reality, Nadine, Krista AND Darian are all selfish and perhaps a bit narcissistic.

And that’s about it.