Review of “Look Both Ways,” starring Lili Reinhart, reveals both what is and what may have been.

The examination of “Look Both Ways”, with Lili Reinhart, reveals both what is and what could have been.

Look Both Ways, a film by Wanuri Kahiu, depends on possibilities, literally and figuratively. The film Look Both Ways, starring Lili Reinhart, Danny Ramirez, Aisha Dee, David Corenswet, Luke Wilson and Andrea Savage, debuted on Netflix on August 17, 2022.

Natalie is a 22-year-old college student who is one day away from graduation and she is portrayed by the blue-eyed blonde Reinhart. She is an animation student and, like everyone around her, has a five-year plan. Nat, as everyone affectionately calls him, dreams of one day owning a production company and creating animated films. His goals require a stage, which Los Angeles provides.

Alternate reality is used in Look Both Ways to tell the story of Nat.

To show us what happens in two scenarios, Kahiu introduces a parallel or alternate reality.

In the first, Nat decides to keep the child after finding out she’s pregnant after having sex with his friend Gabe (played by Ramirez). After the pregnancy test comes back negative, Nat moves to Los Angeles with her friend Cara (played by Dee) to pursue a career in animation. This second scenario seems more promising.

For example, the middle of a page with the “Five Year Plan” doodle is ripped out to make room for the alternative “Five Year Maternity Plan”. Kahiu uses three doodles to depict a developing Rosie (Nat and Gabe’s daughter) rather than cutting between scenes to achieve this.

Without using scientific jargon or the notion of “Upside Down”, Kahiu develops an original method to present another dimension.

Look Both Ways does a fantastic job of capturing this through the fear that social media brings into people’s lives.

When the waiting Nat scrolls through her Instagram and sees her friends starting new careers and living the life she once wanted, she initially feels lost. Nat continues to live the ideal side life, enters into a romance, ends it, and finds a job, only to learn that’s not all. In the comedy-drama, the two worlds move forward until they come to a halt.

From there, they begin to rebuild.

Colors, clothing, hairstyles, music and weather are mostly used to preserve the transition between the two Nats.

Nat, who is currently pregnant and recently moved back in with her parents after her plans took a detour, has everything blue, including curtains, sheets and dumbbells. Her hair is cropped to her ears and she wears checkered shorts and monochrome blouses.

Hats off to cinematographer Alan Caudillo for portraying the emotions of the protagonists and the situations they find themselves in.

The characters in Look Both Ways are humanized.

The last 30 minutes define Look Both Ways. After recovering, both Nats were able to achieve their goals, both emotionally and professionally, five years later.

Motherhood does not appear in Look Both Ways as an obstacle to obtaining a job. Nor does it exalt the idea of ​​a successful, independent woman. Therefore, Kahiu considers the social expectations of a random 22-year-old college graduate when a pregnant Nat confides in her mother that she has no life because she doesn’t draw or visit her friends. friends.

For example, when Nat tells her parents that she is pregnant, they fear that the development will interfere with their plans to enjoy their lives as well as Nat’s future. However, it would have been interesting to witness the parent-daughter interaction from different angles.

Look Both Ways is also about these fleeting reality checks.

For example, in the parallel universe, when Nat is looking for a job in LA, she discovers that every position is unpaid and observes that you have to be “rich to be an artist”.

There is no weighing option in Kahiu’s novel Look Both Ways. Instead, it aims to refute the adage “If you don’t plan, you plan to fail,” popularized by Benjamin Franklin.

Look Both Ways is available on Netflix.