Disclaimer: The following contains spoilers so read at your own risk!
Noah Centineo, known for his roles as Jesus Foster from “The Fosters” and Peter Kavinsky from “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before,” stars yet again in Netflix rom-com, “Sierra Burgess is a Loser,” also starring Shannon Purser. You might recognize Purser from her role as Barb from “Stranger Things” and Ethel from “Riverdale.” After seeing Noah in “The Fosters” and “To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before” and seeing Shannon in the shows that she acted in, I had some pretty high expectations for “Sierra Burgess is A Loser.” Although “Sierra Burgess is A Loser” had so much potential, it unfortunately did not live up to the hype.
Before I dive into why I wasn’t a fan of this film, I would like to take the time to point out what I thought worked well. I appreciated how characters had more to them than what meets the eye. Veronica (Kristine Froseth) is a cheerleader socialite, who, turns out, deals with family issues and needs a tutor. Jamey (Centineo) is a hot jock with a sensitive side, and a little brother who’s deaf. Veronica’s mother is not supportive of her daughter succeeding in school and would rather have her daughter focus on other things such as cheerleading.
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Then there’s Sierra. In the beginning of the movie, I was fond of Sierra. She wasn’t the skinny size 0, but she was confident in herself. It was refreshing to see in a movie. Additionally, I enjoyed the unusual friendship that occurred between Veronica and Sierra during the middle of the film.
The song that Sierra sang, “Sunflowers” was beautiful, and it fit pretty well with the context of the Netflix movie. But, now there’s the part of the film that I wasn’t too thrilled about. The song discusses how Sierra feels out of place. She compares herself to a sunflower and sings about how she would like to be a rose.
I thought the whole catfishing scenario sent a horrible message to the young viewers who were watching it, and the way the film ended felt too rushed. Sierra ditched her friend, never to be mentioned again until much later, when suddenly, they were friends again, which did not add up. In addition to that, when Sierra catfished Jamey, she pretended to be deaf when I assumed she would just have Veronica talk normally. Jamey has a little brother who is deaf, so it’s difficult to imagine that he would ever forgive Sierra for that.
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To continue, Veronica kisses Jamey at one point, because she thought it would be weird if she didn’t, since Jamey thought he was talking to her. Sierra then blamed Veronica and decides to post an unrefined picture of Veronica on Instagram as revenge, making Sierra one of the worst characters in this entire film. Not to mention that because everything felt rushed, the movie became boring. After listening to Sierra’s song, Veronica immediately forgave Sierra which is unrealistic for any friendship.
Although the set and the background of the movie were exceptional, the movie had a lot of continuity and plot issues. It attempted to show a good message about body image, but it took a couple of wrong turns along the way.
I would have liked Sierra to come to apologize to the friend she ditched, Veronica, and Jamey. She would realize that she isn’t ready for a relationship until she learned to love herself and become a more redeemable character. Even though I didn’t like “Sierra Burgess is A Loser” that doesn’t necessarily mean that you won’t either, so I think you should watch it and see if you agree.