The Netflix original film “Dear David” is a bizarre approach to teenage romance that seems to take personal pleasure in being uncomfortable and difficult to tolerate.
Released Feb. 9, it stars Laras, played by 24-year-old Shenina Cinnamon, as a high school student that may be more sexually frustrated than her equally hormonal peers.
Besides her schooling, Laras spends ample time updating a personal blog that details her smutty fantasies about classmate David (Emir Mahira). David is both a school soccer star and the owner of a weak mustache. He also possesses a blind love for female classmate Dilla (Caitlin North Lewis). Dilla is the former best friend of Laras who is wrongly viewed as promiscuous and overtly sexual, facing ridicule from girls, harassment from boys and threats from the school’s administration over her “pornographic” social media posts.
Driven by spite against Dilla, Laras updates her blog during school — but fails to properly log out of her account.
What follows is the development of a school-wide cult following for David, who knows instantly that Laras is responsible. She ultimately agrees to help David court Dilla, granted David keeps Laras’ role as the blog’s creator a secret.
A major selling point for American viewers is Netflix providing an English dub for this Indonesian flick. Unfortunately, Netflix opts to cast obviously older voice actors to play teenagers. It makes the viewer much rather be immersed in the subtitles and the film’s native tongue than stomach post-puberty drivel.
It’s hard to listen to it when coming from the girls, and even harder when coming from the boys.
This film also might be a bit intimidating to viewers that opt for quick entertainment during a personal movie night, as “Dear David” clocks in at a near two hours. With 35 minutes still remaining, you begin to wonder “what’s keeping the credits from rolling in?”
As in films like Lady Bird (2017), this picture tries to cater to the more intimate side of adolescence that comes with growing into sexual maturity. Though viewers may shy away from a teen girl writing domestic fanfiction about her peers, the topic rings true for many young people that get swept up in today’s stan culture. Students in this film even begin circulating self-made edits of David.
While the movie is incredibly slow-paced, it tries to be deeper where it can. Does it work? No, not really. But you can’t blame director Lucky Kuswandi for trying.
Struggles between friends and romantic partners have unrealistic triggers and their resolutions aren’t much better. One thing to note is that an odd religious aspect is pervasive throughout the film, oftentimes feeling unneeded in the context of most situations.
Kuswandi makes shallow attempts to put sexual shame under a biblical microscope, falling incredibly short. Beyond that, the film tries to touch on themes of anxiety and academic pressure which fall flat too. Though two hours could fully accommodate multiple difficult teen topics, Kuswandi can’t seem to make up his mind — leaving the film to suffer because of it.
There are plenty of coming-of-age movies who do the genre well. This film is not one of them.
You can see “Dear David” and its downfalls for yourself, streaming exclusively on Netflix.