Prologue:
I am not even sure why I have this as my first post, but this just came to mind as I was watching edits of Asian cinema, and I immediately thought of a recent movie that easily became one of my favorites, and I believe to be one of the greats. Leave a comment if you see this and have any improvements regarding my writing 🙂
This is not a movie review or critique, just thoughts I have about the movie and a little discussion surrounding it.
In this note, I do not want to talk about how much I loved the movie, but about a discussion I’ve seen surrounding “Andien”. Many critiques were written about how she was ditched and never heard of again, but I felt it was right for the movie to be done that way. At the end of the day, or the movie, I must say, she is not the main character. This story tells us about Arga, even in real life, your life, not everyone stays. People that means so much to you can just go away and walk out of your life in a matter of days.
Many people say that it’s an injustice towards her character, but in reality, these things happen.
The dynamics of Arga’s relationship with Andien reminded me that even with her nice and supportive personality, it does not mean that they are meant to be with each other. While it feels like the director/writer wronged her, Arga’s character will never develop.
His character ending up with Fanny just fit and felt right with me; he needed a supportive personality who takes action but also can keep him grounded.
Now moving on to why I loved this movie is how they interact. Oftentimes, when watching Indonesian movies, I believe that it’s my personal problem, but conversations don’t feel natural. Overly formal language, and feels forced. It’s hard to pinpoint what it is, but it just never felt right with me until this movie… maybe it just resonates with the Jakarta Gen-Z accent, but I’m not sure.
To add on, the story relates, even though not precisely, but it tells a story that many people who are building their lives can resonate with. The storyline is just perfect with how things aren’t always black and white with characters, and we are also asked to reflect and be understanding. Touching on many issues regarding economic reality, toxic family dynamics, masculinity, and the general reality of daily hardships.
It’s a little cliche with how the evil aunt turns out to be his helping hand, but from what I wrote previously, not everything is black and white. People are complex; not everyone is wishing for your downfall, although that’s what it feels like at that moment.
Comedic aspects also felt just right, not forcing jokes, and perfectly timed in many parts of the movie. The sarcasm and dad jokes fit well with the actors and came off just like how you would joke around with your friends.
Critiques of his reality, I somewhat agree, as it doesn’t exactly feel like reality, such as his situation of being jobless and broke at his age, but I also felt that not everything needs to fit in our reality to relate to his story. These things are unnecessary to be our focus, except if you are “CinemaSins.”
Photo Credits taken from the trailer
Adam Brawijaya 
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