censorshipbites

"Where the Crawdads Sing" is basically the movie equivalent of Young Adult fiction written by women for coming-of-age girls. And it clearly shows in some of the clunky and unlikely dialogue: the main character, on trial for her life, refuses to testify because "I won't defend myself." And then's there are the lines that are entirely implausible: "I don't want to 'go all the way' with you because I respect you too much" has never, in any country and all of human history, ever been said by an aroused young man to a young woman.

This movie has an interesting premise and a lot of potential but ultimately squanders it in favor of treacly dialogue that seems to be directly borrowed from Twilight/Divergent/Hunger Games.

Ultimately, "Where the Crawdads Sing" is just "The Notebook," but set in a swamp.

I went into this film neutral, hoping for a regular war film. Instead I got one of the biggest disappointments imaginable.

Put simply, this movie was laughably bad in its depiction of military protocols and procedures. Sure, that furthered the drama, but it was like a superhero showing up in the Old West or a musical number in a disaster flick.

1) The military uses call signs, not names, on the radio for the specific reason of avoiding giving away too much information should an enemy be listening.

2) An enemy tapping or intercepting military communications is WWII-era tech. Modern radios have built-in signal hopping, so radio frequencies change periodically. Where'd the enemy get the new freqs from?

3) A foreign enemy (Middle Eastern) with a perfect American accent? Ridiculous. That's why US troops in the Pacific used passwords with Ls and Rs since Japanese would have trouble pronouncing them.

This movie supposedly had a military advisor, but the screenwriter and director clearly ignored everything he told them.

Anyone with any military service whatsoever will immediately realize how unrealistic this movie is. It's like a movie about a famed soccer match, only a player picks up the ball with his hands and runs with it.

Absolute garbage.

An interesting premise, but the film falls completely flat. Dorothy never grows or becomes truly likable at any point. Unlike Doc Hollywood or My Cousin Vinny, Dorothy never really comes to respect her hometown or warm to its inhabitants. Midway through, the film also hints that the bullying of Dorothy wasn't necessarily one-sided, but it never delves any further and Dorothy doesn't reflect on any mistakes she might have made. Worse, she starts and ends the film manically spewing unfounded assertions and spouting slogans. Dorothy remains a schemer throughout the campaign, so she never moderates or compromises on her far left environmentalism nor does she manage to learn what folks on the Right think. In short, you're far better off watching a political comedy like The Campaign, where the two main characters aren't political stereotypes and neither is entirely good or entirely bad.