Ok, first let me start with the positives. I enjoyed the cast they acted with authenticity, the setting and general portrayals of life for many people in a rural Pennsylvania town was believable. The soundtrack was good, and I do believe the directing was good. What I didn't like about the movie was the same old obvious cliches that many LGTBQ+ movies replay over and over again. It's so overdone. Just because you change the town, or the financial statuses of the characters doesn't make it some new reimagined film. This is typical especially of lesbian depicted relationships. Young naive woman, falls for older married woman in an unhealthy marriage to some loudmouth bully or in this case redneck. Older woman whines and complains about her rotten marriage and how she's stuck in it, only to keep sending mixed signals to the younger woman. Then suprise, older woman convinces the younger woman that she's ready to change her life and leave her marriage for love...only to...yep you guessed it run off with the younger woman causing her to risk her entire career and life just to blindside her by going back to her miserable husband. Leaving the younger woman completely crushed and in a seemingly hopeless end. Booooo, hissssss! I'm so over these kind of bs stories. Give the lesbians a happy ending for a change, or at the very least hopeful. LGBTQ+ youth are already at a higher suicide risk. If I had watched this as a teenager I probably would have wanted to throw myself off a bridge. Think up some new material writers...really what a waste of what could have been a heroic and truly uplifting love story.
Review of AWOL
