Juanita (2019)
Directed by:
Clark Johnson
Written by:
Roderick Spencer
Based on “Dancing on the Edge of the Roof” by Sheila Williams
Distributed by Netflix
Runtime: 1 hour 30 minutes
Released on March 8, 2019 (United States)
Starring
Alfre Woodard
Adam Beach
Ashlie Atkinson
Sam Hennings
Blair Underwood
Elaine Mills
and more…
This year, I took a trip to Lake Huron in Michigan and was in a cabin facing the beautiful water without land in sight looking forward. It was a beautiful and relaxing trip. Very centering trip. I decided that during the trip that one of the things that I would do while there was watch a couple films that I had put on my Netflix list forever ago. The film “Juanita” was one of those films that had been there since its release date in 2019! That is a long time, so it was definitely time to watch it or remove it from my queue. After seeing it, I understand the reason why it was time to watch it. Read why in my THOUGHTS area below.
Quirky movies tend to be right up my alley. I love off-beat films for some reason. This one fits quirky and off-beat perfectly. When I put this on, I wasn’t sure how I would feel about it due to the previous mention in thoughts about how long it had just sat there on my to watch list. As “Juanita” progressed I discovered that it had an important lesson within it, this film speaks to the fact that we, as humans, should be living our lives. “Juanita is a film at its heart about going out and having adventures. It is about not being scared. The take away I got from Juanita is that life is for living and not just doing everything everyone else says to do to keep them happy, life is for you to be happy in. This is a hard concept for me due to always being the protector for others in home, work, and basically everywhere in my life, so I sat with this after the film was over and understood why I was supposed to view this particular film. It may be time to live my life and do more magical adventures like going to see the great lakes, going to concerts, and living this beautiful thing called a life.
The film centers on “Juanita” who is played by Alfre Woodard. She is a mother to two grown ass adults. She frequently fantasies about Blair Underwood (who plays himself in the film) and does everything for everyone else (I see you film), including those grown ass adult children. She decides to go, just get up and leave. That is what this movie is about. What happens to her once she leaves. It is about what happens when you take chances. I won’t reveal any of the things that happen along the way, but she goes where the adventure takes her even though it isn’t where she intended.
This is a magical little movie that has a profound message about not staying static in your life and not always living to serve other people. The writing of the film is crafted well and is well-paced for the screen. There are not a lot of “what the heck is going on” moments of this film, which is saying something since there are literal dream fantasies within it. Those moments make sense and move the overall plot forward, allowing us to understand the main character’s thoughts and motivations and developing her deeper as an overall fictional character. “Juanita” herself does not feel flat as a character here, which can happen sometimes in film when a writer and an actor does not flesh out their character enough to feel human. “Juanita” feels well-developed, well-acted, and well-written.
Each of the actors in the film play their part to a perfect crescendo. Alfre Woodard as “Juanita” is the best here, but that is largely because she gets the most screen-time. This is a film where I was pleasantly surprised because even the side actors helped push the overall message and felt like their presence was organic to the plot, writing, and where the film was trying to go. Having characters make sense to their presence allowed the film to breathe differently than other films that I have seen. It made other characters that were minor feel bigger than they were ever going to be because the people playing them played them as real people, as fully-realized characters. This is probably one of the most “real” feeling films given the context and content. There are moments you truly feel “Juanita”‘s desperation for a different life and that can only be executed by a masterful actress. I appreciate Woodard for being able to pull off those emotions.
The only flaw of the film, to me, was some aspects of a romance that takes place within “Juanita”. It wasn’t a luxurious as it could have been, but honestly that isn’t what I needed from this film. I wasn’t looking for romance, I was looking for that aspect of living your life and finding adventures in places you never expected. The romance just wasn’t it for me, but the other elements were. I felt like the action was great. The writing was great, even though the romance does knock it down slightly. The point of this film was felt and I would gladly watch it again (even though yes, I know it took me forever to watch it this first time around). Now I know sometimes you should just watch the things on your Netflix Queue because they may be something that truly speaks to your soul and helps you to see that life is for the living and not for the constant everyday struggles. There is a world out there and we should all be living in it.
The film “Juanita” is based on the book “Dancing on the Edge of the Roof” by Sheila Williams (as mentioned above), which you can find a copy at a bookstore hopefully near you!
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