Turtles All the Way Down

Turtles all the way down is another fantastic John Green book come to life. Isabella Merced gives a great performance to bring Aza's character from the pages to the screen. OCD is a condition many people still either have no full knowledge of or understanding of. Is the film perfect no, not many are. But this film is great at making you both feel good and make you understand more about those who suffer from OCD. There are some parts of the film you'd wish were slower and detailed. However it doesn't hurt it too much. I really did enjoy this a lot take the time 1hr 50 minutes or so and watch it!!!

I'd like to preface this by saying that my review is probably biased because I myself have OCD as well. The movie made me very emotional. I think I cried like 10 times because of the way I related so much to Aza during her bad moments. I have never felt so seen or heard while watching a movie. It is a truly authentic and respectful representation of someone who has OCD. We need more of this. I will say it is probably a movie better suited/relatable to teens in some ways, but this IS a YA book, so the cheesiness is acceptable haha. I personally think the cheesiness is a good thing in this. The acting was great, Isabel did a great job as Aza. Thought provoking, and I love that it doesn't aim to solve Ada's issues or make her being able to have a romantic partner the most important thing, but instead focused on helping her see that she can still live a good life despite it all, which is the true win when you have OCD. Not only that, but that she DESERVES a good life. Loved it so much.

This is a John Green movie from his book where the main character has OCD, which reflects the author's own struggles. The OCD parts were great, they were well acted and did a great job of having you understand what it's like to live with OCD. I could confirm this was the case during the movie by merely looking over at my girlfriend who has severe OCD, and seeing her crying during pretty much every OCD scene because she hadn't seen such an accurate representation before and felt seen. The rest of movie was unfortunately aggressively mid at best. 6/10, with it only being that high because the lead actress nailed the OCD moments and it's clearly huge for people with OCD to see a movie about it front and center.

The searching for a lost rich billionaire was completely unnecessary and added nothing. No happy ending which is typical of John Green, and no resolution for OCD just him being like lol every days a battle.

So yeah, extremely mid. The best friend was fun. The "mustard" scene was great as well.

I'm honestly such a harsh reviewer when it comes to book to movie adaptations but I thought this was really good. Loved literally the whole cast too, the performances were great :) I do t super understand the 6/10 average rating for this, and I went into assuming that would be accurate. Love the John Green book and read it in high school, I thought this translated be try well narratively even given the limitations of the screen. I also just want to point out (and this is true to the book as well) how really good of a depiction of OCD this is. I don't think there are many very thoughtful depictions of the disorder.

I'll start by saying I'm a fan of John Green. I've read most of his books following the popularity of Fault In Our Stars and have enjoyed the movie adaptations. I can remember reading this book and not loving it - Likely in comparison to some of his others. But for what is maybe not his strongest story, this movie is a really good adaptation. I think it captures the character of Aza really well, and then changes made to the storyline help move the film along for the better. I think the young cast have done a great job, and whilst this isn't the type of movie that will win any awards, all in all it's a very solid film.