Netflix Double Bill

Recently Netflix came up mostly short at the Oscars despite having a slate of incredible films that debuted last year. They have guaranteed more prestige releases moving forward and seem intent on becoming one of the major Hollywood players, however since it’s only February it’s time for them to tick a different type of box with films that didn’t cost as much as the Irishman but nonetheless form the content backbone of their streaming service. That’s right; the middlebrow Netflix movie is back.

The first of these new films might not be considered middlebrow at all given it’s a sequel to one of the most successful Netflix originals of all time, ‘To All the Boys I’ve loved Before’. The new teen rom-com has the garbled title ‘To All the Boys: PS I Still Love you’ and centres on the new relationship struggles of Lara Jean (Lana Condor) and Peter (Noah Centineo) as they each struggle with insecurities over the others former loves. It’s not an altogether terrible film, but it is a mighty flimsy one and a lot of the charm has been lost from the first instalment.

A change in director might have something to do with that lack of charm (Michael Fimognari takes over from Susan Johnson after acting as cinematographer last time), because while the look of film is very much the same there’s a real lack of energy in crucial moments. One of the benefits of a teen movie is that a lot of the miscommunications and plot contrivances of a standard rom-com are excused by the high school setting and emotional rawness of the characters, but nobody ever gets too flustered in this film. The screaming, crying and general overly serious histrionics of a teen relationship are absent, and as a result it never feels like anyone is really that much in love with each other.               

Adding to the oddly sterile feel is the aforementioned visual style, which appropriately takes on the look of an Instagram story or Tik-Tok video. A lot of the time people and objects are placed in the very centre of the frame, with tons of negative space around them that looks like a series of the most generic Instagram mood boards possible, which all serves to highlight just how perfectly curated Lara Jean’s life is. Her existence is the romanticized ideal that millions of young people strive to replicate on their own social media without having access to the astonishing amount of resources she does. The level of wealth and privilege on display here is dizzying, and the subtle idea that the romance of a date is enhanced by how much money has been spent leaves a bad taste in the mouth.  

    

Still the leads are both charming and the overall tone of the thing is too light to really be that offensive. I can’t say if the target audience will be pleased but I suspect they’ll get on board; Netflix certainly hopes they will as a third instalment is already on the way, with a title that’s somehow even worse than this one.  

Next on the slate is ‘Horse Girl’ co-written by its director Jeff Baena its star Alison Brie. I’m not sure this works as a Netflix film to be honest because it doesn’t really get interesting or make sense until about half way through and by that time I suspect most people will have clicked onto something else (probably an All the Boys movie). I stuck with it and by the end appreciated it in its totality a bit more, despite an ending that doesn’t quite tie the knot properly.

The story focuses on Brie as Sarah, a fully unremarkable woman living a quietly depressing existence who begins to have disturbing dreams that bleed into her real life. I think you’re more likely to watch the film through if I spoil it slightly and tell you she has schizophrenia, something the film is oddly reluctant to give away. Knowing this makes the beginning a lot more compelling and allows you to appreciate the many moments where the film depicts the condition with well observed empathy, as opposed to wondering what’s going on or if the story will turn into a thriller or something.

The first half hour lacks a strong sense of direction or tone, and the low key sadness of Sarah’s life wears you down as a viewer, sapping any interest in her problems. A lot of this has to do with Baena, who has never been a very good visual stylist or storyteller, preferring to let scenes play out in an awkwardly slow, unmotivated way. Even the surreal dream sequences lack imagination, and the whole thing looks cheaper than it should do. What qualities the film does have materialize over the entire runtime as the slow burn descent into a mental breakdown is played out in a creeping way that allows Brie to remain convincing as someone who is convinced their problem is not mental.

I should make it clear I am no expert on schizophrenia, but I can say for sure that this is a much more compassionate and detailed look at the illness than the infamous ‘A Beautiful Mind’ from twenty years ago. It’s not the most fun thing you can watch on Netflix but I admire the attempt to say something real about an interesting and often misunderstood life. Compared to the fantasy land of ‘All the Boys 2’, ‘Horse Girl’ winds up leaving you with something more to think about once the credits are over and Netflix starts auto playing the next middle brow drama.