‘Seasons’ (2023) Netflix Movie Review - There is Nothing Memorable About this Film

In Easy Ferrer's Seasons, Lovi Poe, as Charlie, exaggerates everything about herself. She inflates minor expressions and moves her body wildly in different directions. The aim is to present her as an animated character, a woman who smiles a lot, especially in front of her best friend Kurt (Carlo Aquino). It's crucial to establish Charlie as someone alive in front of Kurt because when her best friend gets busy with another girl, her smile slowly fades away, and she looks like a wilted flower in need of sunshine and water. Simply put, the movie wants us to see that Kurt and Charlie are made for each other. We know this. Other characters know this. Even Kurt and Charlie have an idea, though they suppress their thoughts. Because if they reveal their feelings to one another, this movie won't happen.

But let's not be too hard on these characters. At first, Charlie only considers Kurt to be her best friend. It's just when he starts dating a girl named Jane (Sarah Edwards) and doesn't immediately respond to her texts or cancels some plans, she realizes that she sorely misses Charlie's company and that he may be something more than just a friend. Seasons keeps telling us that these two characters have chemistry, but we don't buy whatever is sold to us. For starters, Poe and Aquino act as if they are aware of the camera's presence. Their cries and laughter seem calculated. It's like they are consciously making the "right" expressions in order to appear appealing in front of the audience.

The passion exuded by Poe and Aquino is as hot as a wet towel. And we don't witness any spark between Kurt and Jane because the story is told from Charlie's perspective. Still, when Charlie sees the perfect woman within Kurt's potential partner, you don't notice anything appealing about her. Sure, Jane is a good chef who cooks delicious carrot cakes, but is there anything else that's attractive about this character? What other qualities does Kurt see in her? The movie doesn't go deep into these parts and instead remains content to be on the surface. The pleasures are all scant and superficial. For instance, there is an amusing scene set inside a painting studio, but the people you watch on the screen don't seem to have any history. It looks as if everyone has appeared out of thin air for the sake of this scene. This feeling mostly remains throughout the film's runtime.

Kurt and Charlie's past is shown to us in glimpses, and these moments seem to exist in isolation. The past is not treated as a part of the character's history. Rather, it's converted into a set of bullet points that support a particular comment. When Charlie brings up something about a promise Kurt made to her father, we get a scene that briefly shows us how this event transpired. We see the characters inside a house, though we are not told where they come from or what they did after completing the ritual. Seasons informs us that Charlie works in post-production, and apart from a discussion with her coworker and shots of her working on her computer, we learn nothing about her professional routine and assignments (we don't even get to see what software she uses on her work computer).

Seasons, in the end, heavily relies on its final moments for magic. It tries to subvert expectations through a twist, but since the movie is unremarkable at best, this subversion doesn't feel fresh or interesting. One can clearly observe Ferrer musing, "Look at these characters. They created obstacles for themselves by making wrong decisions." Alas, we are not as involved as the director wants us to be. There is nothing memorable about this movie.

Final Score- [5/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times