Crshd

Well, I suppose I wasn't really in the target audience for the 2019 movie "Crshd". But hey, I gave the movie a chance. As it turned out then I just couldn't commit myself to the storyline, as the things that took place throughout the course of the story just had no to little appeal to me, and that made it very difficult to delve into the storyline, embrace it and take it in. Little did it help that the characters gallery wasn't particularly my cup of tea either. Sure, if you are a young woman around their age, then I believe you will find some mutual ground here with the characters in the storyline. But this just didn't work for me. Now, I am sure that writer and director Emily Cohn made an interesting enough movie for those it was aimed at. But the movie just fell short of providing me with entertainment, and thus it wasn't an enjoyable movie to sit through. Ultimately, I ended up giving up on the storyline and just turned the movie off. This is not a movie that I will be returning to watch a second time. This movie is definitely aimed at an adolescent female audience. No doubt about that. My rating of "Crshd" lands on a mere three out of ten stars. The production value was adequate, but it can only do so much for a movie.

College freshman Izzy Alden is secretly a virgin and desperate to find a crush, any crush, at an Crush Party. Her friend Anuka Deshpande invents a crush. Her other friend Fiona Newman is struggling with her bowling alley job and other issues. This is cute. It's indie cute. It's nothing particularly new although most looking to their movie virginity are usually boys. So, that's a little different and it's using a lot of internet motif to spice it up. The overwhelming style is its indie nature. The leads are not Hollywood IT girls. The story is not that original. It's also lacking in clarity in filmmaking. I still don't understand how the crush selection works. It could have done more to highlight the earrings and the boots. Quite frankly, the boots need some sparkling up to something special. All in all, it's a cute little indie but everybody involved are still works in progress.

This brilliant debut from burgeoning young filmmaker Emily Cohn is an absolute pleasure to watch. The dynamic between the three lead female characters is both hilarious and tense, beautifully depicting the friendships of early college-aged women. Isabelle Barbier is hilarious as Izzy, and Sadie Scott + Deeksha Ketkar take on their roles with gusto. Emily employs innovative narrative devices to usher the story along, making Crshd a perfect time capsule for life for millennials in this very moment in time. Emily and the three leads are no doubt on the rise!

Watching this film was like being invited into a whole new world. It's a coming of age story set in a liberal arts college and yet it's originality offers the viewer to experience this age old story in a completely new way. While we see much of the world through the eyes of Izzy, she passes the narrative baton to her two closest friends, Anuka and Fiona. Their friendship is palpable and grounds the film, making the viewer feel longing for what's ahead and nostalgia for what will soon be lost. It's a gem, polished with humor and shining with poignancy.