Cast Away (2000)

Yara (2021) is a nonfiction crime movie about the disappearance and murder of 13-year-old Yara Gambirasio. The film follows magistrate Letizia Ruggeri’s long search to find her killer, taking us through the procedural twists and turns of the case and ending with the capture and conviction of Massimo Bossetti.

Based on a true story, Yara (2021) has the benefit of a ready-made audience of those who followed the investigation in the press and who will want a glimpse into the specifics of how the crime was solved. But turning true events into a narrative can be challenging. There’s a desire to tell the whole story without omitting any details, and this can bog the movie down in unnecessary particulars. Unfortunately, Yara (2021) lacks focus: in its attempt to tell the whole story, it struggles to tell a consistently engaging story.

Films about solving crimes tend to fall into two camps: focusing mainly on the investigative process or focusing more on the investigators themselves. By trying to do both in a 96-minute runtime, Yara struggles to do either story justice.

An excellent film that focuses on the investigative process is ironically one that doesn’t deal with crime at all (at least in any traditional sense). 2016's Shin Godzilla shows how government officials work behind the scenes to stop a giant monster from terrorizing Japan. Government minutia is tough to make interesting, but with its quick pace and driving momentum, Shin Godzilla proves that films about the inner workings of methodical and flawed government officials can be gripping (of course, the horrific destruction wrought by a giant terrifying lizard helps too). Yara (2021) has two distinct disadvantages. One, unlike the strangely beautiful destruction of Shin Godzilla, the crime is horrible and sad. And two, while Shin Godzilla takes place over the course of weeks, the murder of Yara Gambirasio took years to investigate and prosecute, which means the movie is inevitably filled with lulls in the action and dull moments. Real life government investigations are often boring, and when a film is based on a true story, the writers can’t invent more intriguing elements or alter the timeline to make the narrative more compelling.

This past week I binge-watched The Wilds on Amazon Prime and the characters, themes, and overall tone pretty much consumed my life. The general premise of this character-based show is simple, a group of young women is stranded on a deserted island. Each woman believes they are on an excursion they call “Dawn of Eve” to grow and better themselves in different ways whether they chose to be there or not. Little do they know, they are participating in a completely unethical social experiment. After ending up in the water after a crash landing on their way to Hawaii, Leah Rilke (Sarah Pidgeon) helps Jeanette Dao (Chi Nguyen), who is extremely hurt, to shore. None of the women know how they either got into the water or ended up on the island. Things are OVERALL… mysterious to say the least. Sounds interesting to you? Ok, go start the show because there will almost definitely be SPOILERS going forward!

Every member of the ensemble cast of The Wilds is A) Diverse, B) Talented, and C) SO Beautiful. What more could anyone ask for from a completely female-led and produced show? This island pretty much defeats the need for the Bechdel test by simply eliminating men from the situation. While the women on the island are each carrying complex traumas that, in most cases, involve men, there is something that the character Leah recognizes sometime in the beginning of the series; their traumas certainly did not come from the island. Each woman is a representation of the ways in which young people, specifically women, are oppressed in modern American culture. We see a wide and accurate representation of body types, races, sexualities, religions, and family dynamics through these eight women. As audience members to their near-death experience, we feel as though we are almost partaking in the analysis of the social experiment that is taking place. The power dynamics shift, the priorities change, and the will to survive becomes depleted. Watching the ways in which the women cope with these very real dangers gives us a look into the serious mental health processes that range drastically. Dot, played by Shannon Berry, spent her time before coming to the island caring for her terminally ill father. The ways in which she has confronted death in the past certainly has an effect on how she copes on the island, she becomes a natural leader. Each of their prior experiences helps and holds them back on the island and the way that this show reveals each nugget of information is clever and captivating.

Another thing I loved about this show was its awareness of pop-culture. It consistently felt very current to the extent where I am not sure how well it will age with time. My generation (Gen-Z/ Millenial) will always be able to relate to their references, their insecurities due to the intensity of social media, and their overall “wokeness”. When Shelby (Mia Healey) shows discomfort because of Toni (Erana James) (the island’s token lesbian) expressing her queerness outwardly, the rest of the women defend Toni and let Shelby know how unacceptable her homophobia is. This normalization of call-out culture is GOOD! (I think) There is a lot of toxicity in cancel culture and these women don’t completely shun Shelby for her learned homophobia. They call her out and give her the chance to grow! I think this example of the progressive nature of this show is really telling of how young women who have/ will watch this series will be able to not only relate to but also learn from these characters.

While moments of this show are pretty intense and hard to watch, it lives up to the shock-factor that most audiences crave. The series ends on a pretty hefty cliff-hanger that left me yearning for a second season, which we will probably get before the end of 2021. I hope they can find ways to keep this show relevant and give these excellent characters and actresses a worthy second-season plot. Overall, The Wilds makes the deserted island trope (Cast Away) (The Blue Lagoon) trendy, woke, and pretty damn feminist. If you haven’t seen it yet, what are you doing?!

TV Show review originally posted by Allie Posner on 2/25/21