Isaac Haber

‘Sierra Burgess is a Loser’ is not a good movie. It’s lazily written; it’s offensive on several levels. It is visually and stylistically indistinguishable from most of Netflix’s teen romcoms, of which there are many, right down to the Noah Centineo. However, because I’m a year or two late to this movie, all of these points have already been made. So instead, this review will focus on ‘Sierra Burgess’ in conversation with its source material, Cyrano de Bergerac. Although this is a poorly executed film on most levels, it’s conceit–an adaptation of Cyrano where the “Cyrano” is a high school girl and the “nose” is her weight and appearance–is interesting. It is a good premise wasted, but a good premise nonetheless, and one worth exploring. In contrast to the traditional ‘Cyrano’ story, and many if not most modern adaptation, Sierra believes in herself at the start of the film. At the onset of ‘Cyrano,’ Cyrano thinks that because of his large nose, he is unlovable, even by an unattractive woman (who in the case of the play is his distant cousin, Roxane). Sierra even says to her mother she probably has the “only daughter who doesn’t have self-esteem issues.” Sierra says tells her best friend she has “never really had to think about” female beauty standards. She’s been, at least it seems, isolated from the pressures of society by her extremely loving and caring parents. Of course, this doesn’t turn out to be entirely true; she is not totally exempt from self-judgment, low self-esteem, etc. She cries to her parents at end of act two “do you have any idea what it’s like to be a teenager and look like this?” The implication–and she spells this out for us–is that she really might not have any problems at all if she had the brain of her father and the looks of her mother. It’s an interesting starting point for a ‘Cyrano’ adaptation because it means Sierra has to come to terms with her own insecurities before she overcomes them, as opposed to other adaptations [see: ‘Roxanne’ (1987), ‘Old Boys’ (2018) ‘Let it Shine’ (2012)], where the Cyranos start with low self-esteem and through the validation of their respective Roxanes and Christians. The most interesting element of reversal in ‘Sierra Burgess’ is the ways in which Sierra and Veronica (the Christian in ‘Sierra Burgess’) reverse the Cyrano relationship. In a traditional ‘Cyrano,’ Cyrano speaks for Christian in some way. However, in ‘Sierra Burgess,’ Sierra speaks as Veronica, but Veronica also augments Sierra’s interactions with Jamey (the Roxane of the film). She first gives Sierra risqué selfies to Send Jamey to prove she is who she says she is. Then later in the film, there is a version of the standard romcom makeover scene, with Veronica helping Sierra with her makeup. This is a reverse-‘Cyrano’ because Veronica isn’t actually (for most of the film) interested in Jamey at all, so it’s not Sierra speaking for Veronica to attract Jamey; it’s Veronica appearing physically for Sierra. Overall, this movie is not worth watching on its own merits, but if you happen to be a fan of ‘Cyrano de Bergerac,’ then ‘Sierra Burgess is a Loser’ just might be a winner.