『An Honest Inner Journey Exploring the Boundaries of Love and Identity』
🎥 Movie Overview
🎬 Title: Women… and Sometimes Men (2017)
🌍 Country: 🇺🇸 USA
🎞️ Genre: Drama / LGBTQ+ / Romance
⏳ Runtime: Approximately 90 minutes
📢 Director: Lesley Demetriades
🖋️ Screenplay: Matthew Holtzclaw, Rip Iacuzzi, Ian Shepard
👩💼 Cast: Tasha Ames – Sara
Lindsey McKeon – Ali
🧩 In-Depth Story Exploration (Spoilers Included)
🚨 Sara’s Initial State: “Crisis” and “Liberation Through Silence”
The film opens with Sara dramatically calling off her wedding to her fiancé August the day before the ceremony. On the surface, this appears to be a simple rejection of marriage, but at its core, it represents a rejection of a heteronormative life — one dictated by social convention rather than authenticity.
- Repressed Past: In her college years, Sara experienced a brief relationship with a woman that brought her a sense of freedom and emotional awakening — feelings she has long suppressed.
- Inner Questioning: Her core conflict stems from a dual desire: she wants the touch of a woman yet is not ready to completely give up men. This tension reflects a resistance to the binary thinking that bisexual individuals often confront.
Sara’s quirkiness and boldness become the driving forces behind her journey. She shatters the illusion of a “safe” heterosexual relationship and chooses to confront her confusion head-on, exposing her vulnerability to the world in pursuit of truth.
💖 Exploring Identity Through Relationships: “Experimentation” and “Discovery”
Sara’s growth unfolds through a series of encounters and relationships — each one illuminating a different aspect of her identity spectrum.
- Relationships with Women (Ali and others): Sara’s relationships with women become a channel for emotional depth and sensory exploration. Among them, Ali — a barista — represents her most profound connection, both physically and emotionally. Through Ali, Sara realizes that her attraction to women is not mere curiosity but a genuine form of love.
- Relationship with a Man (August): August does not simply symbolize Sara’s heterosexual past but rather a unique emotional bond with a man. Even after the breakup, he remains supportive and nonjudgmental toward her sexual exploration. This dynamic underscores that Sara’s bisexual identity does not exclude her capacity to love men.
Through these so-called “dating experiments,” Sara compares and contrasts her emotional and physical connections, eventually defining her bisexual identity — not as confusion, but as wholeness.
🤔 The Debate Behind Her Quirkiness: Selfishness or Self-Discovery?
From a critical lens, Sara’s character can come across as complex — even problematic at times.
- “Too Easy” a Journey: Sara’s path to exploration often seems unrealistically smooth — potential partners approach her easily, and she rarely faces rejection. This lack of struggle may make it difficult for some viewers, especially those from marginalized communities, to fully relate to her experience.
- Self-Centered Behavior: Some critics argue that Sara acts selfishly in her pursuit of clarity, occasionally disregarding others’ emotions. Both August and her other partners become, in a sense, “tools” in her experiment toward self-understanding.
However, this can also be read as a reflection of the awkward and imperfect process of self-discovery that many modern individuals experience. Her flaws make her journey feel more authentic, portraying the raw confusion inherent in identity formation.
🌟 The Final Conversation: Embracing Identity
In the film’s final scene, Sara’s conversation with August reveals that she has come to accept herself as bisexual — comfortable in her own fluidity.
Sara realizes that her desires do not have to belong to one gender and that she can be open to both men and women. Instead of remaining stuck at a “confusing intersection,” she embraces a “free and open road” that includes both directions. Her journey ultimately delivers a message of sexual fluidity and self-acceptance, portraying a lighthearted yet meaningful portrait of a modern woman’s identity quest.
🎯 Personal Rating
💕 Love Scene Intensity: ♥♥♥
⭐ Rating: ★★★
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