Between Us

Often when I write reviews, I hope that maybe someone will read the review and go seek out the film themself. Even my bad reviews, I sort of wish someone else would watch these movies and just confirm my opinion. That’s not the case with Between Us. And it’s hard to phrase, because I know the more I say this movie is awful, the more that will work as reverse psychology that makes someone want to watch it. But please, I beg of you. This movie is a waste of time. It is bad at a level that is both nauseating and heartbreaking, especially because of its release in the year 2023. WLW films found a new low with Between Us. And I really hope that I can take that bullet for you by reviewing the film so you don’t watch it personally. This film fucking sucks.

While usually I try and be mindful of spoilers in my reviews, I’m not doing that here. I actively don’t want people to watch the movie, so here’s a summary of the whole-ass film. Spoilers ahead.

Lesbian couples Elodie and Laetitia are financially insecure but also dream of having a child. So, they decide to get a roommate. Said roommate is man named Simon. Simon is a magician, has a pet rat and no eyebrows. Elodie quickly becomes jealous as she believes Laetitia is flirting with Simon. Tragically, it seems she’s correct. During a drunken night, Simon seduces Laetitia by saying sleeping with him would “test” if she’s really a lesbian. Laetitia gets pregnant from this encounter. This could be good news for her and Elodie. But she tells Simon and Simon begins stalking her. Laetitia determines this is all “too hard” and breaks up with Elodie to be with Simon. Simon becomes increasingly abusive until he lands Laetitia in the hospital. Laetitia, heavily beaten and having miscarried, reunites with Elodie in the hospital.

I’m hoping that basic plot summary gets across why I fucking hated this movie. And the thing is, it’s not that I don’t believe this story should be told. The human experience is a strange and near infinite one. So it’s not like I don’t think there should be a story about a woman who breaks up with her female partner for a male roommate who is abusive. That’s probably happened at least once in the span of human history. But good lord, why did Between Us have to be the version of that story we got? The basic plot structure already doesn’t endear me to the film. And then the execution goes and tanks it so much further.

The main issue is that Between Us doesn’t understand that women are complex people who have more thoughts than about sex and their relationship to men. It’s almost odd to see a movie that has two female leads in a relationship yet doesn’t have done the slightest level of exploration or basic empathy when crafting these characters. They feel like Barbie dolls for the director to strip off or place in a sense of heavy tragedy at will. And this director seems to be thinking about sex all. the. time. There’s a scene where Laetitia and Elodie both separately consider suicide. This scene features both women flashing back to good moments in their relationship. Those moments? Exclusively topless. The one sex scene the women share also heavily suggests this director doesn’t know how two women have sex. But who cares, right? We got to see two whole sets of tits!

The relationship Laetitia has with Simon is one of the most disrespectful things I’ve seen in a WLW movie. Yes, Laetitia suggests she might be bisexual in their discussions. But even if that’s the case, she’s still in a relationship with another woman. And while yes, people cheat, who out here is cheating with a magician who has no eyebrows! It’s not even like Simon has a good personality. He’s a total piece of shit. It really feels like he got to have sex with Laetitia just because he asked. Which completely invalidates Laetitia’s existing relationship, especially because it’s a gay one.

For added bullshit, the “seduction” between the two of them features a moment where Laetitia tells Simon to stop. He responds by tearing off her shirt. Laetitia responds to this by moving to lie down on the bed, legs spread, beckoning Simon to take her. Oh, and all of this is intercut with a scene of Elodie and her father at a restaurant. The topic of conversation? Elodie talking about how awesome and wet sex with women and specifically, between her and Laetitia is. To her father!!!

Usually, when I rate a film this low, the film is bad to look at in addition to featuring a bad story. That’s actually not the case here. Between Us is fine to look at. I’d actually call the lighting good. But that really doesn’t matter when your film is this bad. If anything, I’m just angry that some competent people wasted their time lighting this genuinely offensively bad film.

Between Us has no respect to women and specifically, gay women. It’s a story about a female relationship that somehow becomes a film about a shitty man. It bounces between needless tragedy and shots of naked women and at no point does it seem like the director has any thoughts in his head other than his own personal interest in the female form. This culminates in a film that is outright disrespectful to the very people it’s about; queer women. I’m genuinely heartbroken to see this film came out in 2023. I’d really hoped we were past some of this by now. At the very least, I hoped that it was largely agreed upon that women are people but Between Us doesn’t seem to have gotten that memo.

Overall rating: 1.8/10

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