Learning to Lie 

We all need some alone time now and then, but I think even the most introverted of introverts will be happy to have some real human contact when this is all over. Meanwhile, Sweetheart (JD Dillard) provides a stark example of self-isolation to the extreme, while exploring the question of whether or not other people exist just to ruin your alone time.

Jenn (Kiersey Clemons) wakes up on a tropical shore, apparently the only survivor of a shipwreck. Yeah, there’s someone else, but he’s mostly dead, and by the time Jenn is able to help him, he’s just…normal dead. Apparently not one to dwell on the recent past, Jenn gets right to work exploring the island and preparing for survival. She comes across a long-abandoned campsite that includes a cooler full of Cokes, some Polaroids, matches, and an original Nintendo Game Boy, so we know it’s been there for a while. There are also several hints that the island is more Lost than Castaway, including but not limited to, a swirling vortex of doom at the bottom of the ocean. Clemons spends the next 45 minutes of the movie by herself and manages to show a wide range of emotions with very little dialogue. Jenn is clever and a quick study in surviving alone. Unfortunately, it doesn’t take long for a monster to appear. Jenn’s first fights against the monster happen in almost pitch darkness, making it hard to see the creature. For a while, Jenn is able to stay alive using her wits. But then her boyfriend Lucas (Emory Cohen) comes along in a life raft to ruin everything. He’s joined by fellow survivor Mia (Hanna Mangan Lawrence) and, like the patronizing white people they are, they don’t believe Jenn’s account of the monster. Just when you’re ready to crack Lucas and Mia over the head with some island coconuts, they learn the hard way that Jenn was right. And while Jenn never says, “I told you so,” we, the audience, definitely should because Lucas and Mia suck.