Over Spring Break, I took it upon myself to watch the controversial new movie “Miller’s Girl,” which follows Jonathan Miller, an uninspired literature teacher suffering from writer’s block, and his talented student Cairo Sweet, who is proficient in literature. Miller recognizes her talent and continues to offer her special treatment inside and outside of class, which blurs the lines of their relationship. Cairo immediately becomes infatuated with Mr. Miller, and the movie continues to depict how their relationship progresses as Cairo attempts to seduce Miller. I have seen a large variety of opinions on this movie both following the trailer and after the actual release of the movie; because of the controversial topic and mixed reviews, I was ambitious to experience this film from a neutral perspective. 

         To be upfront, I wasn’t incredibly impressed with the writing in this movie; the beginning of the movie started off decently strong, but as the plot progressed, any foundation the characters were built on crumbled. This is most noticeable with Cairo, as she contradicts herself multiple times throughout the movie. For example, in the beginning, Cairo says to her best friend Winnie, “I don’t care about being hot.” Yet, the rest of the movie is practically a compilation of Cairo’s glaringly obvious attempts to be hot—disregarding the fact that Jenna Ortega is perfectly styled as Cairo, with not a single hair or thread out of place. If they were going to characterize a character as low-maintenance, why contradict that trait in the styling choices and literally every other scene in the movie? When I was watching this movie, I couldn’t help but be reminded of every copy-paste variation of Wattpad self-insert characters, who “aren’t like other girls” yet still manage to be effortlessly beautiful with their messy buns and flawless complexions. Now, a character being annoying doesn’t make them a badly written one. However, Cairo became so unbearably irritating that I almost found myself empathizing more with Mr. Miller, which brings me to my next point–

         I think the ending was stupid. After writing what’s essentially porn of her and her teacher (for her midterm paper no less), Cairo gets brutally rejected by Mr. Miller. In order to get him back for refusing her, Cairo reports Miller to his boss and gets him fired.  For the writers to paint Cairo’s relationship with her teacher as her “greatest achievement” doesn’t make sense and also could paint a harmful image of real-life assault victims coming forward about their experiences. As viewers, we see Mr. Miller always on the defensive, and he’s always portrayed as the victim put in a tricky spot. Alternatively, Cairo is portrayed as the malicious orchestrator who was at fault for their affair, despite Miller having all the power in this dynamic and having also [wrongfully] allowed their relationship to reach a physical point. Despite knowing the flaws of their dynamic, this portrayal forces the viewers to question who truly was at fault: Cairo or Mr. Miller?

          Whether deliberate or not, this movie stands as a warning to middle-aged married men to watch out for teenage girls like Cairo. Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m all for controversial, toxic movie plots and flawed characters, as long as they’re done effectively. And, unfortunately, while I found the movie entertaining in an absurd way, I struggled to understand what the actual point of the movie was [that the director was trying to convey]. Why are the viewers being pushed to view both characters as antagonists when Mr. Miller is a character that should not be emphasized with?

All in all, from Cairo’s tacky school-girl outfits to the weirdly cinematic assault scenes, this movie came off as a fetishistic depiction of teacher-student relationships, rather than what it is: grooming and unethical power imbalances.