“To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before”, “Dumplin’”, “Sierra Burgess is a Loser”, and “The Kissing Booth”: all average films with similar characters and storylines. With Netflix’s history, it is not odd that even in another language they have once again created a stereotypical teen romance with all the cliches. “Anonymously Yours” is the newest addition to Netflix’s collection of teen romance movies which are mediocre at best.
The film follows Valeria, (Annie Cabello) the daughter of a successful businessman. She feels pressured to go into the family business but all she wants to do is make movies and have some form of control over her life. However, the larger focus is on her online relationship with her love interest, Alex (Ralf Morales.) She doesn’t know who he is because, as suggested by the title, they remain anonymous while communicating online, going so far as to set up rules against discovering each other’s true identity.
The movie has a high-quality appearance with interesting cinematography, dynamic shots, and overall is visually appealing to look at. The soundtrack was enjoyable and upbeat, but it wasn’t anything special and there were a couple of times where songs felt out of place or random.
Unfortunately, the movie never gives its characters an arc so they can grow as people. Instead, the people around them change and are forced to see they are in the wrong when they really aren’t. I honestly would have preferred a film about Valeria’s best friend, Regina (Estifi Merelles) who finds love with Alex’s best friend, Lina (Alicia Velez). They are much more interesting characters that actually have a conflict as rivals on opposing soccer teams.
Furthermore, the only conflict the main characters create is one they create themselves. Valeria and Alex are decent characters until the part of the movie where they start getting closer in real life. After going out a few times, but still unaware the other is their anonymous online love interest, they insist on being in “both” relationships at the same time. So despite not actually cheating, it is just weird because neither character is aware it isn’t cheating.
Additionally, there were multiple plot lines that were set up that led nowhere. The biggest one is the conflict of Alex being poor and only at the school on a scholarship while Valeria is this rich girl who has always gotten what she wants is established but never used for anything. We never really see Alex struggle with money, despite it being deliberately included to act as part of the overall problem. Also, the issue of Valeria’s dream of filmmaking being disregarded is solved almost instantaneously after she put two minutes of effort in.
I watched this with a friend and to give it the best chance we watched it in the original language with subtitles. We had a fun time joking about it, because I didn’t even really need subtitles to know what was happening or what was going to occur. There were multiple moments I predicted at the very beginning of the movie that ended up actually transpiring. But then when it was done, we decided to watch a little with the hilariously awful English dubbing. It all felt off and none of the emotion was normal.
‘Anonymously Yours’ feels empty and when I was finished watching it really felt like a five-minute skit that someone drew out for an hour and a half. If you want a good romance movie that is also on Netflix I would recommend “The Half of It.” It is also diverse, but treats the teen audience as capable of understanding and appreciating deeper themes and the characters experience actual growth together. It was actually worth an hour and a half of my time unlike “Anonymously Yours”.
