We start seeing the perfect girl, Olivia Brooks (Madeleine Petsch), who is so perfect that it is hard to believe she exists, let's go, what teenager wakes up at five o'clock on her own to run, then gets ready, grabs her breakfast and leaves for school as if she were a grown woman leaving for work, well, But we also realize that this apparently perfect girl and a sad girl, and then we wonder what can be in her life for her to be so sad, then we understand that one of the students at school Jane (Chloe Yu) committed suicide and that she and Olivia were best friends, then we understand so much sadness.
But as the film goes on, we realize that the school environment is totally competitive, with students wanting to prove themselves all the time because it seems that all that matters to these young people is to go to Harvard or Stanford, friendships, fun and social life are of second importance, and as if all the time these young people are fighting for attention and to be the best, we see this during the debate where Olivia is there being praised by the teacher and then another student arrives, and we can see that he feels less important at the same time, due to the credentials of the other.
The tension to be accepted at Stanford is sufferable, and as if her whole life boils down to this, with anxiety attacks and vomiting in the school bathroom, and as if she would explode at any moment, and the school counselor gives good advice here, about the importance of not letting yourself be defined by a vacancy in college, but in the small and competitive world where Olivia lives this advice sounds like weakness.
As if Camille (Nina Quezada Bloomgarden) is not enough, the debate girl arrives with her extreme competitiveness and toxic personality, taking the stress to the maximum, it is impressive the pressure and the level of self stress here, But our dear Olivia reconnects with her old friend Isabelle (Chloe Elizabeth Bailey) and finds out about a scandal involving Camille at another school, they then decide to play a silly prank to intimidate the other student, but this connection is extremely fragile and Olivia is high dependent on attention and this has everything to go wrong.
The two become experts at ruining people's lives using the dead friend's profile, which is bizarre and the volatility of their relationship makes the whole situation even more tense, when Isabelle gets into Stanford and Olivia is still on hold, we see that she is visibly upset, but, at the same time, we see that she is so consumed with destroying others that she hasn't even tried to make the letter to send to college, which gives us, a point here, sometimes trying to destroy others leads us to destroy ourselves in the process, and friend this girl is on a collision course here.
This movie reminded me of why I didn't have many friends in school, the pressure to feel accepted and fit in is a waste of time, going to your ex's party to suffer, get high and ruin his current one's reputation is totally insane and accepting a drink that you don't know where it came from and the sudden peace offering from your boyfriend's ex five minutes after she was rude to you, and the kind of behavior that a person totally desperate to be accepted would have.
The whole mystery about cyberbullying and Jane's profile is insane to me, if these teachers aren't being smart enough to connect the dots, after all, it's easy who Jane's best friends were, well, I think they should start from there, but if they can't, they should call the police and not stand by and let more and more people get hurt because of their inability and the cruelty of two teenage girls.
And always the same blah, blah, blah, while Olivia and Isabelle go to the limit by leaving the girl at the party hospitalized. And when they feel the pressure of being found out, Isabelle and Olivia start accusing each other, and that story about an ugly child not having a father, and the fact here is that nobody in that history is a saint.
Where are the police here, the principal interrogates the students, without the parents present, a student almost died and there are no police, I think it's because the school wants to avoid the scandal, but it's not right, what happened here is serious, and don't call the police, it makes the school co-responsible for everything that happened in my opinion.
Wow, when Olivia is finally interviewed, we see that the school is really trying hard despite everything to solve the case, and when Olivia understands this, the dread on her face is evident, and the fact that she keeps seeing her friend dead all the time just shows us how unstable her mental health is.
When one of them feels threatened by the other, what I predicted from the beginning happens and the two have a literal deadly fight, where Izzy takes the worst, and the huge house without an adult around just shows us that having a good life condition does not guarantee happiness and that many times these rich people are so obsessed by their positions that they see their children as only a part of the game and therefore fill them with demands, about passing college, and having a bright future, but the counterpart of this does not exist and when their children need they are rarely around.
Man, how come rich people don't have cameras at home, and Olivia comes out completely unscathed and amazingly, using the story of her friend's suicide, she gets through to her dream Stanford and amazingly decides to study mental health, how like this, the first one needs mental help is her, come on, I feel sorry for the people who will cross this girl's path.
I know it's a movie, I wish everything in it was just fiction, but the truth is that there are not many Olives and Olivia's out there destroying at an early age whoever crosses their path or hinders their ambitions, and my guess is that these teenagers are now, in political positions, doctors, policemen, psychologists, coaches influences or anything else that allows them to keep manipulating others to get what they want, don't get me wrong, I am not saying that all people in those positions are, but that there are many like that out there not only in those professions but everywhere unfortunately there are.
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