To the Stars

Watched To The Stars a couple of weeks ago, when it first premiered on Prime, and was blown away. The details, the accuracy of the setting, the cast and their performances are very captivating. It takes me to the time when this all took place.

Please do yourself a favor and stop reading these reviews and WATCH IT. Don't spoil yourself a great experience. You're welcome!

The story is engaging because the central plot is slowly unfolded. There are clues along the way, but when it finally comes it really touches you. I feel sad for the women in the spotlight, as their hopes and dreams are quashed because they are not mainstream.

To say too much about this movie would reveal some late story twists/reveals, but it really does a great job of capturing a time period and pulling you into the friendship between to seemingly opposite teenage girls (one confident and one shy/awkward). Not always an easy story to watch, as it shows the dark underbelly of a time period that we love to look at with such nostalgia and romanticism.

I didn't know what to expect from this film, because I'd never heard of it and randomly picked it out for a Sunday evening flick.

The story is about an outcast, bullied high school girl in Small Town, USA (Oklahoma) who is so unhappy with her circumstances that she wishes she would disappear. Enter the pretty, cool girl from a bigger town who moves to the neighborhood and, from the start, sets out to help and liberate the bullied girl and help her find her way in life.

I won't give much away, but I wasn't expecting the turn the story took about 3/4 of the way in. I felt that although the "event" that occurred was hinted at, it all seemed to occur too late into the story. From this event forward, everything followed a predictable dive towards the ending like the movie couldn't get to the ending fast enough, so much so that several major story lines were left dangling on the prairie wind.

The acting is not bad at all, and the stifling atmosphere of small towns/small minds is well captured. But as much as the story was going somewhere most of the film, before taking a sudden turn and race, I wish it had either stuck to one main plot point or at least given the last 3rd of the film much more depth.

Overall, I'd give the film 6.5/10 stars and would recommend it being watched at least once.

.... maybe that was the point? I wasn't sure how to rate this because I thought maybe that was point; to leave me thinking, wondering? If so, then maybe it deserves a 7 or 8, but it just felt/feels "wrong."

I feel like the writer messed up, because I wasn't thinking and wondering so much about the character's lives (although I did want a better look into those characters & their lives) as wondering why I was left feeling like I was given a synopsis, or outline of a story, rather than actually hearing and seeing a whole story.

Indeed, now, having said that, I think maybe a 5 would be a more appropriate rating, because I just hit the nail on the head--this film was like being given an outline to what could have been a great story. Funny, having written this I now understand why I was left wanting more, and I do not believe that was the writer's point. But I'll let my original rating stand because I don't usually write reviews and maybe that means something too.... or not.