Happy New Year everybody!
I decided to take off for the month of January, and so I hope you all had a great start to 2022.
Now it’s officially that time of year again, when everyone is expected to pair off with the one they love to watch romantic movies and snuggle on the couch. With Valentine’s Day on the horizon, it’s only expected that I would review a rom-com and share my thoughts on it with you all. As a single person myself, I too enjoy a good romantic comedy. It’s always nice to fantasize about being swept off my feet by a handsome stranger after a delightful meet-cute. So, when I saw that Netflix released a sequel to a comfort film of mine, Out of My League, I definitely wanted to check it out.
Still Out of My League is an Italian romantic comedy that is the direct sequel to the 2020 movie, Out of My League, in which Marta, a girl with cystic fibrosis, decides to begin dating Arturo, the most popular boy in town, despite knowing that she will likely die before their relationship can flourish.
Now, despite its many flaws, I liked Out of My League because of the beautiful cinematography and the delightful brevity of the film. While Still Out of My League tried to recreate the same feeling as the first movie, the sequel somehow felt like a cheap imitation of the original. By the time this film was over, I couldn’t help but feel like I had sat through an overlong episode of an Italian soap opera.
(Before we get into it, I just want it noted that just like the original movie, I watched this film with the British voice actors dubbing over the original Italian actors. This may have also contributed to my less than stellar feelings about this film, but I'm going to stick to core elements of why this movie just didn't work for me as a whole instead of focusing on the translation and voice acting.)
Let me explain: (SPOILERS, I GUESS)
Category 1: Plot -D
This movie has no plot, essentially. It’s a series of subplots that follow all of our favorite characters from the original, sparing Arturo, who the characters keep bringing up for some reason. (They bring up Arturo so much throughout the course of this film that I kept waiting for a cameo from him, but no, he never showed.)
There is an A, B, C, and even D plot to this movie. The A and C plots are connected, while the B plot has its own 20–30-minute arc, and the D plot is so unimportant to the movie that I practically forgot about it entirely.
The A plot follows Marta as she is in a long-distance relationship with her new boyfriend, Gabriele. We discover at the beginning of this movie that Marta and Arturo broke up at the end of the first film (which kind of breaks the continuity of the first movie because Marta and Arturo are shown getting married at the end of it, but whatever), and so now she is with Gabriele, who is an artist. Gabriele was recently hired to work on a movie in France, even though he and Marta have been dating for a few months. This disappoints Marta, of course, but she ultimately decides that she can do a long-distance relationship for him. The main story is about how Marta and Gabriele try to make this work, while also juggling the challenges that come with her cystic fibrosis.
The C plot (we'll get to the B plot later) follows Jacopo and his search for romance. In this movie, Jacopo inexplicably falls in love with a delivery boy, Tomasso (who is admittedly very hot), who works in Marta, Federica, and Jacopo's favorite soup place. The only problem is, Jacopo can't tell if Tommaso is interested in him, or even if Tommaso is gay. So instead of just asking Tommaso about what he is interested in (like a normal person), Jacopo convinces Marta to go out with Tommaso to discover the truth about his sexual orientation.
Which is... messy, to say the least. But we'll dive more into that later.
The D plot is completely forgettable, and absolutely unnecessary. I'm not even sure why it was included in the final cut of the film. This plot follows Federica's cousin, Rebecca (who was not introduced in the first film, nor was she important in this one). Rebecca is a social media star with a large following, who inexplicably falls in love with a dorky character named Giacomo. They begin a secret relationship. This plot point goes nowhere and is irrelevant to the main characters in this movie. Predictably, in the end, Rebecca learns to not be ashamed of Giacomo and to be proud of dating him, even if he is a loser.
Yada, yada, we've seen it before.
Despite the lack of a central connecting plot, I think the thing that bothers me most about this film is all of the mental gymnastics that it wants you to go through. For example, if insta-love was the crux of the first movie, the miscommunication trope is the crux of this one. SO MANY conflicts in this film would have been resolved with just ONE conversation, which made this movie frustrating to watch.
The long and short of it is that this movie was a mess. It started out cute enough, but then took a drastic turn, thanks in no small part to the characters.
Category 2: Characters- D
If Arturo from Out of My League had practically no personality, then Gabriele from Still Out of My League had a bit of an anxious-obsessive one. From the beginning of the movie and throughout the film, it is hinted at that Gabriele is feeling threatened by the fact that Marta used to date Arturo, someone who was rich and (arguably) “out of her league” (Like the title of the movie!). This is clear when Gabriele initially refused a big job opportunity in France because he wanted to resume dating Marta, even though they had only been dating for three months. This insecurity in their relationship comes to a head when, scared that Marta is cheating on him with Tommaso, a guy that is (definitely) out of her league, Gabriele HACKS INTO HER SOCIAL MEDIA ACCOUNTS AND VIEWS HER PRIVATE MESSAGES. Still convinced that she’s cheating after that, he calls to confront her, and claims that he compromised her privacy because he knew that she was obsessed with dating upward, and she was insecure with the way she looked.
From that point on, I was DONE. Gabriele’s character immediately went from a cute love interest to a gaslighting asshole who was ruining the movie for me. I no longer cared for him as a character, and I didn’t blame Marta for breaking up with him afterwards.
After Gabriele’s character imploded, I found myself losing interest in the other characters, who were also terrible, but in their own way. Everyone essentially becomes a villain in this movie, despite their protagonist status. (Well, all except for Frederica, but we’ll get to her later.)
This movie felt like an example of brutal character assassination, as if the writers were trying to make all of the characters suck more than they had to.
For example, the worst character in this movie was surprisingly the best character in the original, Jacopo. In this film, Jacopo essentially forces Marta to go out with Tommaso alone in order to be his wingman, despite knowing that Marta had a serious boyfriend. This leads to complications not only with her relationship, but with Tommaso, who seems to be really into Marta.
Marta certainly doesn't help the Jacopo situation, because she encourages this behavior instead of just telling Jacopo to ask out Tommaso and see for himself if he was interested.
Like I said- messy, messy, messy. 0/10 would recommend.
Category 3: Cinematography -B-
The one good thing I will say about this movie is that it's still pretty to look at. However, Still Out of My League isn't as aesthetically pleasing as the original. The cinematography for this movie somehow felt colder and more distant than the original film. I could tell within the first five minutes that the director was different, despite the films looking the same on a base level. The set design and the camera angles were basically identical from movie to movie, but somehow, I just wasn’t as captivated visually.
I know it sucks to compare a sequel to its original, but it’s almost impossible not to in this particular instance. Out of My League also has a lackluster story and questionable characters, but at least the visuals made up for it in the end by being warm and beautiful to look at. Unfortunately, the visuals in Still Out of My League weren't enough to save this movie from my ire and irritation.
Category 4: Comedy- C+
Still Out of My League definitely leaned harder into the comedy aspect of this romantic comedy than the previous film. The sequel focuses less on Marta’s illness, but more on the hijinks that she gets into with Gabriele and her friends. The comedy in this movie is-annoyingly- derived from the miscommunications between the characters, as Marta and Gabriele try to tackle a long-distance relationship, and Tommaso flirts with both Marta and Jacopo.
We’re supposed to think it’s funny when Marta and Gabriele are on the brink of breaking up after an awkward video call. We’re not supposed to worry about how they should have just talked out their issues, and instead, we’re meant to laugh at the awkwardness of Marta being caught mid-strip tease.
It gets to be a little exhausting, to be honest. Again, most of the conflicts in this movie could've been resolved with a phone call, and so the comedy isn't all that funny when it seems like the characters are deliberately trying to hide information from their partners.
Additionally, the entire D plot with Rebecca and Giacomo was basically played for laughs. The original film was so bare bones that it didn’t have time for unnecessary comedic plot lines such as a social media celebrity dating an uncool loser, but in the sequel, there’s PLENTY of time to fuck around. Even though these scenes are cute and funny in the moment, I still argue that they should have been cut from the movie entirely, as it adds nothing to an already empty film.
Category 5: Themes- C-
Remember how I mentioned we would come back to Frederica and the B plot later? Well, now’s that time.
The B plot of Still Out of My League follows Marta’s friend Frederica as she is hired to work in tech security after being discovered by a recruiter at a poker game. Almost as soon as she is hired for this job, she is subjected to petty slights and bullying from her other female co-workers.
Frederica, determined to make things work, eventually makes peace with the women after bonding late one night. During this bonding experience, Frederica discovers that the women were bullying her to protect her from their male boss, who is a sexual predator. They wanted Frederica to quit so that she would not become a victim of the sexual harassment that has plagued the other women in the office.
Since Frederica is a lesbian, she didn’t pick up on her boss’s behavior, but she’s more than willing to help the women take him down, so that it never happens to another woman in their company.
This entire segment of the movie felt out of place and a little ham-fisted, to be honest. I was surprised that so much of the movie’s run-time was dedicated to this issue, as Still Out of My League was a movie with relatively low stakes up until this concept was introduced.
I get the idea behind Frederica plot point, as it's very topical. Sexual harassment is incredibly prevalent in workplaces dominated by men (especially tech) in the real world. Thanks to the #metoo movement, there has been a public outcry of support for people who experience sexual assault. The movement has led to societal changes such as believing women who report sexual misconduct and bringing awareness to how toxic male-dominated work forces can be when left unchecked.
However, Frederica’s plot point kind of bothered me because I found it to be an example of #girlbossing, that wasn’t really exemplary of anything other than virtue signaling and allyship. The attempt was made, but it rang hollow in the end.
At the end of the movie, Frederica catches her boss on video trying to solicit her by offering her a promotion, and she displays this at a big company party for everyone to see what a terrible person he is. This inevitably leads to his boss- a woman- finding out about his behavior and firing him, claiming to “Get rid of the pig.”
While I appreciate a happy ending, this felt somehow incredibly unrealistic and also unhelpful to the larger conversation about sexual assault. In this movie, it is made to seem like by getting rid of one person, all issues of sexual assault are solved forever, which is simply not the case.
If the movie wanted to go for realism while also attempting to make a statement in a romantic comedy setting, then they should have followed the format used on The Sex Lives of College Girls.
The Sex Lives of College Girls is a romantic comedy-drama series that follows four girls during their first year of college. As you can probably deduce from the title, they each go through their own sexual misadventures, navigating romance and sex while also trying to get to class on time.
Bela, one of the characters on the show, is sexually harassed by a male student who she was hoping to impress for an on-campus internship opportunity. In The Sex Lives of College Girls, this is dealt with in a real and uncomfortable way, as she questions whether she was responsible for this, or if the harassment was worth her future career goals. However, despite this tough subject matter, the comedy of the show still shines through. The comedy in this circumstance not only makes the situation seem more real, but it keeps the vibe of the show consistent.
I'm definitely not saying that The Sex Lives of College Girls handled sexual assault situations perfectly, but I will say that I felt like it was handled with more care than it was in Still Out of My League. If nothing else, The Sex Lives of College Girls dared to critically examine how people would really react to sexual assault allegations, as opposed to just ousting the one singular person responsible for all of the terrible things going on.
In reality, whenever someone is accused of sexual harassment or rape, there is usually a lengthy investigation into the issue, resulting in mild or no consequences (*cough, cough* Brock Turner *cough, cough*).
While I can see where the writers of Still Out of My League were going with this plot point, I almost wish it had been left out of the movie entirely.
Category 6: Pacing- D
Maybe it’s because I’m old and have the attention span of a squirrel, but this movie just seemed to drag on, and on, and on.
I mentioned previously that the original movie was a comfort film of mine because of how pretty and short it was. Still Out of My League was only about 20 minutes longer, but I still checked out at the 90-minute mark anyway. I didn’t really care what else was going on in the movie after that point, and so I was on my phone writing my Letterboxd review as I finished the rest of the film.
Speaking of the rest of the film, I should probably mention that this movie ends on a cliffhanger, which made the terrible pacing of the movie feel even more like a slap in the face.
At the end of the movie, after Gabriele and Marta break up (SPOILER, I GUESS), Marta is rushed to the hospital for a lung transplant for her cystic fibrosis. Jacopo and Frederica call Gabriele to tell him about it, and he flies back to Italy to see Marta. But before the audience or Gabriele can find out if Marta survived her lung transplant surgery, we are treated with a delightfully evil “To Be Continued…” like we’re watching a daily soap opera. This means that there will likely be a third movie.
Before you ask, yes, I will most likely be watching it when it releases on Netflix.
In short, this movie is Bad (yes, that’s “bad” with a capital B to emphasize how bad it was). The first 45 minutes of this movie are surprisingly cute and charming, but somewhere along the way the movie grinds to a halt and ceases to be either of those things.
I believe Tommy Ryan on Letterboxd said it best: "Everything good about the first film is stretched incredibly thin in the second, and haphazardly supported by bottom-of the barrel romcom [sic] fluff. This film's 'To be continued...' message at the end reads more like a threat to the viewer than an intriguing and suspenseful promise. But yes, I will be watching the third movie whenever they shit that out."
Still Out of My League wasn’t the worst movie I’ve ever reviewed on this blog, but it was definitely one of the more disappointing ones, as I went into this film hoping to love it the way I loved the original. I guess I’ll just have to stick to that one instead.
I’ll give Still Out of My League a D. If you're looking for an Italian romantic comedy to watch with your sweetheart this year, I recommend the original, Out of My League, on Netflix.
Have a Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! I love and appreciate all of you. Stay safe out there.
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