Sierra Burgess, stereotypical loser

Sierra Burgess, stereotypical High School loser, overweight, zero make-up, daughter of famous father, in band club. At first, you’d think you will empathize with her because she’s at the lower ranks of the social ladder and yet headstrong and undeterred. But as the film goes on, you’ll quickly realize that she isn’t just a “loser.” She’s a vindictive, manipulative bitch.

She receives a text mistakenly sent to her and goes along with it

When she receives a text from a quarterback of a rival school, Jayme, she doesn’t question the whole thing. Instead, she keeps the conversation going, not even thinking to ask where Jayme even got her number (which he got as a prank from Veronica, the popular cheerleader in Sierra’s school, and whose number Jayme was supposed to get in the first place) and whether Jayme even knew who he was talking to.

Nope, she goes on to flirt with Jayme via text message and even talks to him over the phone even though she knows she’s not who he thinks he is.

She conspires with Veronica to keep the charade going

And because she knows her masterplan isn’t going to work in the long run without the person she’s pretending to be, Sierra enlists the help of Veronica to keep the charade going. She offers Veronica her services as a tutor to make Veronica seem “smarter” for a college guy she likes, and Veronica begrudgingly accepts. Later on, as the two grow much closer together, Veronica willingly goes along with catfishing poor Jayme as she stands in for Sierra during a video call and goes with him on their first date.

She kisses Jayme… and it’s a total cringe fest

Of course, a movie can’t call itself a romcom without a vital part of the formula: the kissing scene. Sadly, this movie’s kissing scene isn’t what you’d expect at all.

At the end of Veronica and Jayme’s first date, as they talk at the parking lot by Jayme’s car, Sierra stalks them and hides as she feeds Veronica lines that Sierra as Veronica would say. And when Jayme moves in for a kiss, Veronica instructs him to close his eyes because he might see her “big pores”. Jayme obediently does and the girls conduct a poorly coordinated switcheroo, and Sierra gets the first kiss of her dreams.

And if there’s anything that we will get from this scene, it’s that Jayme has absolutely no idea what just happened and Sierra gets to walk away with a big smile on her face.

Ever learn about consent, Sierra Burgess?

She constantly ditches her best friend

It’s not like Sierra didn’t have anyone to tell her how wrong everything she’s been doing is. Her best friend, Dan, constantly reminds her to tell Jayme the truth and even presents her with the opportunity when they both run into Jayme playing catch with his younger brother at the park.

Dan had always been there as Sierra’s rock and voice of reason, and yet Sierra takes him for granted, lying to him about sleeping early when he invites her over for a movie night when she was really at a High School party with Veronica, and leaving him hanging to quickly console Veronica with her relationship problems.

He deserves a better friend, and I’m glad that he kind of dropped her when her ugliness finally surfaced.

She humiliates Veronica in front of the entire school out of jealousy

After everything Veronica did for her and just when Veronica needed a friend the most, Sierra betrays her, hacks her Instagram account, and posts an incriminating photo of her that makes her the laughing stock of the school and exposes the both of them to Jayme during his football match.

Why? All because Sierra specifically tells Veronica not to kiss Jayme, but catches them doing so (and it wasn’t even Veronica’s fault!). How low did she have to go?

And she STILL gets a happy ending??

This is the part we can’t understand. After everything Sierra did, to Veronica, to Jayme, and to herself, she still gets their forgiveness, her dream man, and the happy ending she doesn’t even deserve.

Does the film really expect us to believe that it was enough for her to show remorse for her actions through a song she composes? When the song isn’t even about her being sorry, but about her giving excuses for her actions and playing the victim in the grand scheme of things?

Does the film also expect us to believe that we can just forgive her when she never even apologized to all the people she hurt and never even explained to Jayme why she did what she did? When it was Veronica who, out of the goodness of her own heart, was the one who clarified everything to Jayme and even let him listen to Sierra’s song? When Jayme, poor soft boy, blindsided and manipulated, had to be convinced that his feelings for Sierra are still true?

Come on.

There is one good thing we got from the film

Let it be known that Sierra Burgess is a Loser isn’t a complete wreck, all thanks to its saving grace: Veronica and her character development. It doesn’t always happen that the audience gets to empathize more with the popular girl than with the main character. And the fact of the matter is that she was the only three-dimensional character out of everybody in the film, with insecurities and a complicated family background to explain her attitude and behavior. She was a good person — true to her word, unafraid of being seen with a “loser” at a party, and just a girl whose feelings can also be viciously manipulated — who honestly deserved better than what she got. #JusticeForVeronica!

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