Malak A.

I come back to this movie every time. Parts of this movie I take into context, specifically the moment where they transformed Mia’s image from a typical teenager to a princess with a few threads, some make-up, and hair straightening. This transformation can really go a long way in reality. In the film, the representation regarding her friendship's progress and how it developed and grew into something more meaningful was also something I resonated with. It was heartwarming to watch this film's outcome because I never got that kind of ending for my story. Overall, watching this film reminded me of my own childhood. I had a great childhood growing up. Having to evolve into grownup things can be scary, and I think this movie beautifully expressed this part of growing up and going through change at a rapid pace. Including all of the chaos involved and the passion it came with. Not to mention the Queen, her loss, and her growing love story.

This film genuinely produced a raw emotion I didn’t know existed. The portrayal of infatuation, obsession, hidden desire, infidelity, sexual attraction, jealousy, and so on was so well done. I started reading online about the back story for the film script and screening. I couldn’t get it out of my mind for maybe two weeks after witnessing this masterpiece. The end was so unsettling and soul-crushing that I definitely did not expect that outcome.  I definitely recommend it to all of you readers and writers with hidden desires.

This film broke me in multiple ways—pieces and cracks, even. The film portrays the perspective of a woman and a man who have a raw, beautiful, and loving relationship that later develops into a negative relationship because of their income and habitual circumstances. The most important scene that took me out was the mother's story. How they portrayed her slow anguish, grief, disassociation, self-image issues, lack of confidence, family support, love, genuine connection, and loneliness after the death of her husband. It ate her soul quite literally; she did nothing to deserve this. I did not sleep well after seeing this film. It’s definitely a nightmare. It reminds me of Wanda Maximoff's dark reality portrayed in the Marvel TV series ‘Wanda-Vision.’ I learned a very valuable lesson. Family values should always come first. Secondly, always learn to control your habits, for they will control you.

The cast and crew did a fine job portraying their emotions. The story was entirely relatable, realistic, understandable, and eye-opening to the current economic situation in Western America. I watched for Margaret and finished with heartbreaking inspiration, sensationally ending with an open window. I hope to see more films similar to this featuring Margaret in the future. One of the various portrayals that stood out to me was the toxic relationship between Alex (Margaret Qualley) and her partner Sean (Nick Robinson). Warning: Spoiler Alert in Certain Contexts The film portrayed the couple as living together and having a daughter. While they dated for a while, Sean had never proposed. But because they had a daughter together, are still living, and have intimacy between them, Sean's character portrayed his lack of respect for his partner Alex and his lack of compromise to take his relationship seriously, as he never proposed for a marriage. You can see that his struggle with alcohol addiction was more loyal than his relationship with his family or the immediate sexual intimacy he had with the server at the pub he worked at. Another ill-written character with narcissistic traits and false pretensions was Alex's father. He was physically abusive to his mother and pretended as if it never happened, and he lied about the cupboard existing in hopes that Margaret would not validate his actions about why Alex and her mother left him from the beginning and the start of Alex and her family falling apart. Towards the end of the film, Alex needed her father's dependency in trial to support her claims against Sean due to his behavior and domestic violence. Alex tried numerous times to truly bond with her father and endorse his trust, but you can see how words and actions are not the same. Though he said he would do anything for her and be there for her whatever she needed, when the only thing she asked for was his testimony against her daughter's father, Sean, for his abuse, he refused and said that it's wrong because Sean was a struggling addict. Sean and Alex's father are not different; they are one of the same animals.