as we move ourselves closer and closer to summer and the sweet thoughts of vacays, basking in the refreshing laps of a swim day, and cool drinks like lemonade or piña coladas, we fix our gaze on the bright horizon of a time that's more free and relaxing. so, as we all (however, for this sidenote, specifically you all) prep for these glorious chillin' months, we want to throw out a film recommendation.
switching, and now speaking about 'us' personally, our lives are constantly filled with watching things, whether that be movies in our hopscotch, films outside of it, or even revisiting the lovely music video genre from time to time. because of this, we excitingly spent our time the other night watching leighton meester kill her role in the weekend away!! and, yes. as you can guess, this is the movie that we are recommending, since it's just so on par with the upcoming season and festivities....well, hopefully not too on par.
anyhow, we'll just say it now. rip the so-called 'band-aid' off. we are big, big, BIG fans of leighton meester. but who in their right mind doesn't love blair waldorf?? who?? honestly, we all need some hbic blair waldorf energy in our lives sometimes. that said, we love leighton more than just from her "xo xo, gossip gir"l past. her talent as an actress is incredibly moving, notably stealing are hearts at a young age with her role in hopscotched-film monte carlo!! additionally, her career as a singer is fully loved on our end. her album "heartstrings" is eloquent and delicately hard-hitting. thirdly, her beauty is beyond comprehensible!! she is absolutely down right gorgeous, and her smile is perfectly contagious. on top of all of that, she lends her platform for several charities, being a spokesperson and advocate for organizations/campaigns such as "life can't wait" (a campaign that motivates women to go after their dreams), "safe horizon" (which brought to light awareness about domestic violence), and "feeding america" (where she volunteered in puerto rico, providing relief efforts after hurricane maria). adding on to that, leighton also auctioned off clothes and accessories for charity, having the proceeds go to "many hopes" (an organization that builds schools and homes for kids in kenya). and although we could go on about the reasons for our love toward leighton, this is a sidenote about her film, the weekend away. seeing that we got more than a bit away from the point, the whole entire purpose of us 'ripping the band-aid' was to state that, to us, she does no wrong, but that's not why we are recommending this film.
in fact, this netflix original flick is based off of the novel by sarah alderson that grippingly tells the story of two friends who go out on a weekend vacay and only one comes back....now, we didn't read the book, so we cannot verify if the book-to-movie adaptation is amiable, yet we do, once again, disagree with the squashiness of rotten tomatoes' rating. for an instantaneous watch after finding out that this movie existed, the weekend away was incredibly entertaining!! never dulling and always pulsing the suspense, we highly encourage you peeps to give it a watch.
for one, the plot is highly palpable. though the storyline is fictitious, the unfolding of this missing person's case is not too far off from realistic. including in the plot (spoiler) the main character, leighton meester, having hazy memories, a lack of recollection from the night before, and no knowledge of if the guys she was with roofied her or not, this scenario is definitely a woman's worst nightmare. then to add the disappearance of her best friend along with that, the scenario only gets more frighteningly too-real. upsetting as the fact of the matter is, the (spoiler) final resolution of beth (leighton meester) vindicating the case and handing the one guilty to the authorities gives the audience satisfaction and the women watching a tad bit of a triumph. never fully disclosing the theme throughout the film, we noticed several little ties and lines that called out the bs that comes from inequality toward women. obviously exampling this is when (spoiler) pavic (one of the cops) calls beth's missing friend a "s*ut", causing beth to whip back that guys only call women that if the women turned them down. maybe it was just us, but that clap back was hecka needed to be stated out loud!! it was just one of those 'call it like it is' moments, and we must give the props to sarah, leighton, and kim farrant (the director) for allowing the strong, smart, and sharp beth to lead this 90 minute thriller.
correspondingly we want to say that the acting in this film is clap-worthy. each actor plays to their character very well. especially adrian pezdirc, who was on point with the portrayal of 'sebastian the creepy hotel owner in a mystery novel'!! and, of course, we just have to drop it again. leighton meester was fantastic on screen. her crying abilities were vulnerable and impressively constant, which just adds to her character's distraught mentality.
now, we don't want to give the whole film away, so we will just shut up. but, please know that we were outstandingly pleased with the weekend away. it's enticing. apprehensive. sincere. twisty. wicked. and we like it much, much more than a simple favor. no shade to that film or those a part of it. serena just can't dethrone the forever and always hbic that is blair waldorf!!
see you in the summer <3
xo, the twins