A couple of weeks ago, after yet another heavy snowfall, Sean slid his beautiful car into a dump truck stubbornly parked in the middle of the road. Mournful, he sent me pictures of the damage (he was totally fine, the car incurred some ugly scratches) so that I could send a sympathy bouquet with my deepest condolences. He had his car doctor on speed dial of course, and this week he brought her in for cosmetic surgery. In the meantime, he’s traded in his flashy muscle car for a Toyota Camry rental and it’s destroying his soul. After a 6 minute drive he declared “Everything is backwards!” What, pray tell, is backwards, exactly? Well, the wipers. Well, not the wipers, but the wiper knob, it’s on the other side of the steering wheel. Is that all, Sean? Oh no. Another backwards thing: his car is fast, this one is slow. When I mention this seems more like opposites than backwards, he clearly does not appreciate the difference, or he doesn’t appreciate my pointing it out.
Cut to: a Camry-ride later, we’re at a screening of Every Day, the newest in teen romance. One of the “lead characters” is…well, not a ghost, maybe more like a soul, who migrates 
to a different teenaged body every day. This entity will henceforth be named A. A. happens to fall in love with a girl named Rhiannon (Angourie Rice). Rhiannon never knows what her love will look like, so she just has to walk around school until she finds a stranger giving her the creeps. That’ll be today’s version of A.
As you can imagine, there are some challenges to dating someone who is, erm, bodily challenged. It’s a lot for a couple of kids to take on. Luckily, these aren’t normal teenagers but the world’s most tolerant, imaginative, understanding teenagers who are so open-minded they might just make this thing work (if only the skeptical\logical adults don’t get in the way). It’s hard to imagine less vain members of the selfie generation – A. runs the gamut from hot cheerleader to the fat sidekick from Spiderman: Homecoming, and yes of course A. chronicles them all on Instagram, because duh.
It seems statistically impossible that, of the more than a dozen young actors who play A., not a single one of them is any good, but this is where the long odds pay off. At some point the casting agent must have just said fuck it and gone for the perfect score, even if it is in the wrong direction. What I’m really grappling with is how old this movie made me feel. I am now so far away from being a teenage girl myself that I can’t even identify what a “cute boy” is anymore. Understand that my mother called me boy-crazy since I was 3; my bedroom walls were plastered in Luke Perry posters, and Mark-Paul Gosselaar, and Joey McIntyre, and Leo, of course. So I used to be a bit of a heartthrob aficionado, not to brag. But now? My hottie-thermometer was stone cold. I could not have distinguished between the “hot boyz” and lint pulled up from between the sofa cushions. The struggle is real, y’all.
In conclusion: if you are a 14 year old girl, proceed with gusto. Everyone else should probably consider carrying a special spray just to ward this one off. Watching this movie is like main-lining progesterone. It hits you in the ovaries so hard I went home and immediately had the period cries.
Sean watched the movie hands clasped, eyes to the ceiling. Was he praying for his own death? We’ll never know. But as we walked back toward the Camry humbly awaiting us in the cinema parking lot, he wondered if it was actually his beloved Mustang simply manifesting itself in the ugly body of a reliable, economical, mid-size sedan. Maybe?
ASSHOLES WATCHING MOVIES 
The premise of this sounds interesting but I’m iffy with teen movies now. There’s a handful that are good but I feel like I can’t relate with any others. I’m too old. lol
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Join the club! These movies just aren’t for us anymore.
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The good thing about this movie is that for its duration the Toyota Camry was not the most soul-destroying thing in Sean’s life.
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Haha, right you are.
You know, that blurb may end up on their DVD cover.
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oh no oh no SEAN – GET IT FIXED FAST. Teen movies – no thanks.
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It’s been in the shop a week and counting. He’s missing it hard!
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I like to tell myself I’m just getting less shallow instead of old and jaded.
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What a sweet delusion 😉
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Please offer my condolences to Sean.. ha! And to the movies casting director clearly.. and to you for having to have sat thru it. 🙂 P.S. I would love to have a Camry and he clearly got the shit end of the rental car stick as they do make a fast one.. hahahaha
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I love it when you go all existential.
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I do love a good teen movie. I might have to give this one a try. But at home. I’m not braving a movie theater for this one (even though I won’t have to trudge through snow to get there).
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I wasn’t a fan of ‘teen’ movies when I was one. I think I had a brief flirtation with them in my 30’s, but I felt they were not the kind of sauce that flavours anything but bubblegum.
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I am totally laughing over your review. And also feeling old, so very old.
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LMBO! I so get your review about not relating! You’re so funny, girlfriend. (Thank you for distracting me with the pix of Idris over yonder! I can still swoon, can’t I??? 😉 )
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Yes, let’s. The swooning is still good.
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I can’t even with this movie’s plot…
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Not even heard of this but I’ll steer clear .
“Watching this movie is like main-lining progesterone. It hits you in the ovaries so hard I went home and immediately had the period cries” – this made me laugh so much!!
x
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That’s an awesome read Jay. I love the spin on the Camry.
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I don’t know about you, but I want winter to die already. Hope he gets his ‘Stang back soon!
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I’m not brave enough to hope that this is it for winter. Just when you get your hopes up, a buttload of snow wipes the smile right off your face. Best to keep the mittens handy and the snow scraper in the backseat!
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