Reasons Why You Should Watch We Need to Do Something:
- You have a Hulu account.
- You’re looking to spend 96 minutes watching something.
- You like horror movies.
- No, like, you LOVE horror movies.
- You want a queer romance between two goth girls who look like those black and pink houses in Santa Monica.
- You’ve said I love you to your girlfriend while she was casting a spell.
- You have razor blade earrings to commemorate your time as a cutter.
- Your dad was an abusive alcoholic and you want to relive that experience.
- You’re trying to watch all 114 of Pat Healy’s IMDb credits.
- You don’t like snakes.
- You don’t like dogs.
- You don’t like trees.
- You don’t like tongues.
- You’re friends with someone who worked on the movie.
- You used to be dead.
- You are dead.
- You watched American Horror Stories and thought: I want more Sierra McCormick.
- You’re happy to watch an entire movie for a handful of funny lines and one genuinely scary moment.
- You feel guilty for ghosting that nice person you went on three dates with and you’re looking for a creative way to punish yourself.
- You want a reminder that the pandemic could be worse
- You’re trying to watch every movie released in 2021 with queer women characters, because you write for Autostraddle and are finishing up the best movies of the year list.
Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Watch We Need to Do Something:
- You like realistic dialogue.
- You like complex characters.
- You like thoughtful plotting.
- The queer storyline is somehow the worst part.
- Vinessa Shaw can be seen in better movies like Eyes Wide Shut, Two Lovers, and 40 Days and 40 Nights.
- You want to watch something enjoyable.
- You don’t think queer girls should be traumatized for using witchcraft against a creepy boy.
- You still have episodes of Yellowjackets to catch up on.
- You think mental illness and self-harm should be taken seriously.
- It might be nice to go for a walk.
- Have you learned any card games lately?
- Maybe there’s something fun happening in the news?
- Sometimes when I don’t know what to watch I’ll revisit a movie or show I already love.
- You can always read a book.
- Wait, I’m being told this movie is based on a book, so be careful with that one.
- You’re my friend and I care about you.
Before you go!
Autostraddle runs on the reader support of our AF+ Members. If this article meant something to you today — if it informed you or made you smile or feel seen,
will you consider joining AF and supporting the people who make this queer media site possible?
Join AF+!
Drew is a Brooklyn-based writer, filmmaker, and theatremaker. She is a Senior Editor at Autostraddle with a focus in film and television, sex and dating, and politics. Her writing can also be found at Bright Wall/Dark Room, Cosmopolitan UK, Refinery29, Into, them, and Knock LA. She was a 2022 Outfest Screenwriting Lab Notable Writer and a 2023 Lambda Literary Screenwriting Fellow. She is currently working on a million film and TV projects mostly about queer trans women. Find her on Twitter and Instagram.
Drew Burnett has written 617 articles for us.
“Watch if you don’t like dogs.”
a collective gasp is heard across the lesbian internet…
See, this is a great review because I have all the key information (don’t watch it) and also have been reminded about the walk I wanted to go on!
DREW. I love your typical, thoughtful writing on film but if you want to write more reviews in this style I would not be disappointed. You had me at the first item but I lost it at shouldn’t #12. (So I guess colloquially I’m dead and should watch this…)
I hope writing this review was as nourishing for you as reading it was for me. Seems like you deserve it after losing those 96 minutes.
Does the dog die?
sigh. not on screen, but
https://www.doesthedogdie.com/media/729492
I can’t tell what the movie did with this material (it was probably bad), but can we NOT pathologize people having experiences with self-harm and mental illness that don’t perfectly align with the recovery model? Some people don’t really feel like being a cutter was a mistake, or even that it was beneficial at the time, and that’s okay. Some people don’t see the self-harm as having been their actual big problem, but something they used to cope with their actual big problem, and that’s okay too. Some people practice harm reduction and as long as they are actually doing that instead of just saying they are, also okay!
Drew, I don’t know if you’ve been there, but if you haven’t, it’s fucking complicated, and if you have, your experiences are valid but please don’t speak for everyone else who’s been there too. Somebody wearing razor blade earrings isn’t necessarily taking it less seriously than someone who regrets it all or sees it as an illness, and might also BE someone who regrets it or sees it as an illness but is approaching that viewpoint in some atypical way.