TL;DR – While it is not anything new, the film focuses on women supporting women and that helps elevate it.
Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars
Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene
Review –
There is nothing quite like the pain of
something lost, time might heal all wounds but it also makes the deepest cuts.
This is especially true when the thing that is lost is a romantic relationship.
What do you do when nine years of your life disappears overnight, how do you
process that pain. Well, today we look at a film that explores all of that.
So to set the scene, we open with Jenny (Gina Rodriguez) alone sitting in the
subway obviously in a state of distress. She had finally gotten the job of her
dreams after years of hard work, but it involves moving from New York to San Francisco
and her partner of nine years Nate (Lakeith Stanfield) decided that he was not
prepared to even try a long distance relationship. Everything is changing in
her life but there is still one constant and that is her best friends Blair (Brittany
Snow) and Erin (DeWanda Wise) still have her back. So as a way of helping to
cope and to celebrate her new life and commiserate her moving away the three
decide to go to Neon Classic a concert from their youths and have one last
crazy adventure.
One
of the things I really liked about Someone
Great is the undercurrent of women supporting women. Her friends are there
for her, they support her through this difficult time, they sing with her, make
sure she does not go off the deep end. It is that level of support that you get
from a deep friendship but it does not stop there. It is reinforced all
throughout the film, like when Jenny runs into Hannah (Rosario Dawson), Nate’s
cousin. The moment she finds out that they had broken up the conversation immediately
changes tone as she hugs Jenny and tells her that it will be all right and if
she ever needs someone to talk to she is here. This is the first film I have
ever seen that has women in most of the major positions including Director,
Writer, Cinematographer, Composer, and it really translates onto the screen.
The setup is not anything we have not seen before in some form, it sort of
combines the ‘you just got dumped, let’s go get you drunk and thinking of
something else’ and the ‘you are moving away so let’s have one last adventure’
kind of story. However, what elevates it is the commitment of the three leads
to make it work. You really feel like they are old friends who know each other
deeply. They are also going through their own issues with relationships, like stagnation
and lack of commitment, this creates the narrative framework that makes the movie
flow. As well as this, I like that as the film went on, they complicated what
seems like a simple reason for the end of the relationship.
However,
this is an American hard R rated movie so going in you can expect a lot of
drugs, sex, and language. It is not nearly as bad as a lot of films I have
seen, that takes the R rating as an excuse to just do anything. Indeed, most of
it does feel contextual to the situation, especially for Jenny that going
through the breakup. However, it does start to get tiresome after a while and
it does feel like at times it is used to sort of pave over some of the cracks
in the story.
In the end, do we recommend Someone Great? Yes, and No. This is going to be a
very contextual film for people as to if they will connect with it or not.
There is a lot of drugs, sex, and language which will be an instant deal
breaker for some, but there is also a heart-warming story of female empowerment
and the strength of good friendships. I quite enjoyed my time with the film,
but I don’t think I have any compunction to ever go back and revisit it.
By Brian MacNamara: You can follow
Brian on Twitter Here, when he’s not chatting about Movies and TV,
he’ll be talking about International Relations,
or the Solar System.
Have you watched Someone Great?, let us know what you thought in the comments
below, feel free to share this review on any of the social medias and you can
follow us Here. Check out all
our past reviews and articles Here, and have a happy
day.
Credits – All images were created by the cast, crew, and
production companies of Someone Great
Directed by – Jennifer Kaytin
Robinson
Screenplay by – Jennifer Kaytin
Robinson
Music by – Germaine Franco
Cinematography by – Autumn Eakin
Edited by – Jeffrey Wolf
Production/Distribution Companies – Feigco Entertainment, I Can & I Will Productions, Likely Story & Netflix
Starring – Gina Rodriguez, Brittany Snow, DeWanda Wise, Lakeith
Stanfield, Alex Moffat, Peter Vack, Rebecca Naomi Jones, Rosario Dawson, RuPaul
Charles, Michelle Buteau, Jaboukie Young-White & Ben Sidell
Rating – Australia: MA15+;
United States: R
