Sienna Benton

If you want beautiful scenery and Greek music, you got it… but the writing treats the viewer like it’s a child. The comedy falls flat and it feels very much like a Hollywood interpretation of Greece. I would have rather focused on the main plot about Toula discovering she had a brother instead of all the other characters subplots. It would have been nice to jump back and forth between when her father was young and in love when the village was alive, versus how it lost it’s population. The whole plot could have revolved around Toula and her brother working together to help the town come back to life in honor of their father. We live in a time where these villages really do need help, and this film could have been a perfect opportunity to promote the importance of that. Several Americans are actually leaving the states because too expensive, so it feels like this film was a wasted opportunity. Hopefully they decide to use the profits to restore some of the homes in these villages for interested families.

First of all, Vanessa’s character is easily the most relatable, but they try to pass her off like some psycho control freak. She represents what it is to be a strong hard working woman who lives in the real world dealing with real issues, and speaking real truth. She goes above and beyond for Daniel, who in return I’m not even sure is that interesting of a protagonist. What does he even bring into these relationships? What is so special about Daniel’s character that he has these women competing for him? I can’t exactly pinpoint what he wants, let alone what he needs (whereas his brother has a more interesting story where he clearly wants to be a DJ, but needs to learn how to prioritize that dream over the family business.) Our protagonist clearly doesn’t want to be married, but jumping from one relationship to another is just downright confusing. If you don’t want to he married, then we need to know why. What reason could he possibly have to not get married to the incredible woman Vanessa’s character is? Does he not believe in marriage? Does he want to figure out his career? I just don’t buy that he wants to be with someone “better.” Dating someone who is rich and famous and wealthy doesn’t necessarily make them “better” Noa, although stunning, does not really provide much depth. Yes she gives us good insight to the fact that being famous definitely has its struggles, but her world is so superficial it’s almost toxic. But they present her like she’s the one with these huge problems, like we need to feel sorry for her... but I just don’t. Everyone revolves their lives around hers because she’s famous. But take away the fame part, and Noa is kind of boring. She’s supposed to win our hearts when she helps Daniel in the bathroom, but in reality, any woman would have felt horrible for Vanessa. I don’t understand how Noa just takes Daniel’s side? She literally just got cheated on, so she should have been able to empathize more with Vanessa’s four year down the drain relationship since both of their guys clearly don’t know what they want. I could go on and on, but writers need to focus on character development a little more closely.

Cash grab sequel. Animation is amazing, but my main question is how is Anna and Elsa’s mom a native tribe member, but seems to be the only one in the tribe who doesn’t have native features? I mean if the mom is a native, shouldn’t Anna and Elsa also have native features? It was like the movie was trying to respond to the topic of race by including more diversity, but in the most disingenuous way. Look, if you want an all white cast because that’s what makes geographical sense, then just commit to that choice instead of creating afterthought characters to simply fill the diversity check box. There are ways to be inclusive and actually mean it.