Common Sense Media Review
By Barbara Shulgasser-Parker
,
based on child development research. How do we rate?
Teen girl's fantasy blog goes viral; sex, language.
Parents Need to Know
Why Age 15+?
Any Positive Content?
Where to Watch
Videos and Photos
Dear David
Parent and Kid Reviews
What's the Story?
In DEAR DAVID, Laras (Shenina Cinnamon) is a 17-year-old overachieving class president at her private high school. She has earned a scholarship at her prestigious school where everyone else's parents are paying big money. She has a secret crush on David (Emir Mahira), a soccer-playing, shy, church-going boy with an athletic physique who stirs passion in Laras' imagination. Her outlet for these thoughts is an anonymous blog that she posts of inexplicit sexual fantasies in which she's a haughty queen and David is her sex slave, "ready to fulfill all of her lusty needs." Laras writes one of her fantasies during class on a school computer and rushes out without logging out of her account. Someone posts her stories publicly. David is immediately identified as the object of the fetish and mocked. He already suffers panic attacks and now can barely perform at soccer. David figures out that Laras is the writer but keeps her secret when she agrees to help him win the heart of Dilla (Caitlin North Lewis), who has been unfairly branded as the class "slut" by a boy whose overtures she rejected. When the school administration demands that the writer come forward, Laras remains silent, fearing ridicule and loss of her scholarship. She remains silent even when her friend Dilla is accused of being the author by the principal and suspended from school. Will Laras do the right thing?
Is It Any Good?
While Dear David promotes creativity, individualism, and the power of women, it also allows a selfish girl to get away with doing a number of self-serving things as if they were OK. Rather than presenting an admirable role model, the movie presents a whiny teen who thinks it's OK for others to pay for her mistakes. Laras proves to be a particularly insensitive and self-absorbed 17-year-old as she blames her school for not honoring the existence of "private places," as if her foolish choice to use a school computer used by countless other students somehow was supposed to guarantee her privacy. She ignores the fact that she was writing her sexual fantasies during class time, in a roomful of classmates, using school property. If anyone violated her privacy, it was she herself who did it. In fact, it was her negligence -- she didn't log off -- that gave another student access to her writings. While it wasn't right for that student to post the writings, he couldn't have done it without Laras' help.
The movie unintentionally raises a far more insidious problem faced by all in an internet-bathed, post-privacy world in which kids, teens, and adults post their whereabouts, last meals, activities, and thoughts but still unrealistically believe they can keep it all to themselves. Forced to apologize to the student body, Laras makes a snide speech that blames others for her mistake. She has nothing to feel guilty about, she proclaims, as if all she did was jot down some sexual fantasies, and the resulting damage had nothing to do with her. The movie ignores that girls can be self-actualizing without being mean and oblivious.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about the way that Laras refuses to admit she's the author of a sexual fantasy that goes viral. Does that seem reasonable when she fears she'll lose her scholarship if she comes forward? Does it still seem reasonable when her best friend is accused by the school for something she didn't do and gets suspended?
Do you get an idea of what a panic attack feels like based on the David character's portrayal? Do you know anyone who has them?
When Laras gives her "apology" speech, do you think she's really apologizing, or just blaming others for her mistakes? What do you think a true apology must contain?
Movie Details
- On DVD or streaming : February 9, 2023
- Cast : Shenina Cinnamon , Emir Mahira , Caitlin North Lewis
- Director : Lucky Kuswandi
- Studio : Netflix
- Genre : Drama
- Run time : 118 minutes
- MPAA rating :
- Last updated : March 1, 2023
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