Christa

I honestly don’t even know what to say or how to feel about this movie.  What I appreciated the most was seeing a group of black women simply existing, supporting one another, and being emotionally vulnerable. We so rarely get to see black female friendships portrayed with this much care. Black women are constantly stereotyped as loud, “crazy,” cold, ghetto, heartless, or emotionally unavailable, so it meant a lot to see their inner lives, their struggles, and their mental health taken seriously. We hurt too, and we’re so much more than the stereotypes people project onto us. What I didn’t like, though, was how the movie seemed to normalize cheating. Since when is flirting with or dating married men treated so casually? What frustrated me the most is that Bernadine, who is completely devastated after her husband cheats on her, later ends up pursuing married men herself. After everything she went through, I expected more self-awareness from her. That contradiction didn’t sit right with me. I also found myself wondering: why is being without a man is something so unbearable? These women are strong, intelligent, and capable, yet they keep holding on to men who lie, cheat, and treat them terribly because they’re afraid of being alone. And Bernadine, the white woman didn’t “take your man.” He chose to leave. He chose to betray everything you built together. If another woman can “take” your man, then he was never truly yours. But, I found the ending incredibly satisfying. Watching these women finally realize they didn’t need terrible, dishonest men to complete them made me genuinely proud. They chose themselves, and that was the most powerful part of the movie. — In a world full of men, your girlfriends will always be the love of your life. —