To prep for the release of Laura Marano’s debut album and as a follow up to the previous post on this blog, I decided to watch, on Tubi, the Maranos’ (sisters Laura and Vanessa, and mom Ellen) movie Saving Zoë.
Well…
*Ahem* Ok. Wow. Um… This… is going to take some unpacking. Wuh. Wow. Yeah. Multiple posts, this time, for sure. Uhm, yup. Multiple posts.
*Ahem*
Hugely, huuuuuuuuugely personal movie. This one goes way above and beyond the norm in that aspect for sure. Christ, I’m not even sure of what I just saw, honestly. In some instances the movie seems to verge on the autobiographical. Some of the things said and implied by, uh, Echo (Laura), and Zoë (Vanessa) were kind of seriously blunt and shockingly on the nose. One line said by Echo/Laura to her sister Zoë/Vanessa that directly revealed a lot of regret about the sacrifices made to become famous was kinda… interesting. Also interesting that the protagonist Echo/Laura Marano made a snide, direct reference to Laura Marano’s Boombox music video when she talked to her therapist in the movie, who is played by Ken Jeong, who also co-starred with Laura in her Boombox video.
Seriously. I was like… Wut? Did I just hear her say what I thought she said? I actually had to rewind the movie a bit and yeah, Holy Shit, lol. In this instance she didn’t so much break the fourth wall as she sledgehammered it into oblivion, lol.
Obviously there are shedloads of issues at play here concerning me. I take it it’s not a coincidence that the major antagonist is a creepy webmaster who runs an underground website who sexually lusts after both sisters and is named “Tom”. And there’s the whole subplot of narcotics addiction, and… other stuff…
Yeah, we are talking maaaaaajor psychological issues being worked out, here. And I mean… I get it, I do, it’s just… yo. Wow. Holeeee fuck.
Well, just glancing at the IMDB page for this flick, it seems as if this is yet another in a long long line of movies/shows that I’ve talked about here that is underrated. I’m not sure if people really “get” what this movie is saying, and why, and to whom. I’m not… going to bother looking up the RT reviews. Do I need to, really?
I’m still not sure 100% that I understand it, myself. This might in fact take multiple viewings, and that’s a good sign.
Honestly, I’m not sure of how to make this “not complicated”. I was going to start by describing the movie in general, but the closest flick I could think of to this one was… Zoey (!!!!!) Deutch’s Before I Fall. Yes, the same Zoey Deutch that famously guest-starred in an episode of Vanessa Marano’s Switched at Birth, and who was also a Disney regular like Laura. Not Zoë, Zoey. But, back to Zoë.
Actually, no- let’s stay on Zoey for a moment, since I swear I got déjà vu at least 5 times while watching Saving Zoë, and each time, it was in reference to a Zoey Deutch movie, like the aforementioned Before I Fall.
At one point I actually paused Saving Zoë in disbelief because a character recited a line of dialogue verbatim from Zoey’s movie! And in similar circumstances! I mean… were the camera filters the same, too? They kinda looked like it, and… yeah, yikes, lol.
At any rate, in Saving, uh, Zoë, there is a girl, Carly, who, uhm, reminded me a lot, both in looks and part, of Halston Sage’s character in Before I Fall, and… yeah, I don’t know, this only adds to the fuckery.
Ellen Marano (mom) lent her voice to a few episodes of the original Magnum P.I., (including an episode called “Laura”. Wut?!?) and uh… Halston Sage lent her talents to an episode of the remake. Her costar in that episode? Ken Jeong.
Looking up “Laura” in IMDB, we find that it is the second highest rated episode of the show on IMDB and it has a plot that reads like a weird alternate dimension script for Saving Zoë, with the primary change being that of the character of Thomas, who goes from being the good guy (Thomas Magnum) to the bad guy (Tom).
Wut?
I know that Saving Zoë is supposedly based on a book, but… yeah, well. IMDB tells me “The Maranos had the rights for the movie for 10 years. They bought them when they were still very young from Alyson Noel, the author of the novel.” Yeah, I’ll bet.
Oof. Wut?
All of this is seriously making my head spin.
Uhm, I’ll be listening to Laura’s album for sure… and uh, other stuff.
You know- at some point I’ll need to talk about some of the… other other stuff, you know? The really controversial stuff, the stuff I’ve not been talking about for fear of rocking the boat, so to speak. But… not now. IDK.
Honest to God, people. What the… fuck?
The mind just boggles.