Fried Green Tomatoes

⭐7.5/10

This is an absolutely random movie that Jess came across. It's some indie-style drama/comedy from 1991 staring nobody you would know, except maybe Jo Bennet from the office (who is in a minor-ish role). It's about two young girls who become very close friends, and within 15 minutes I'm like, 'haha they're closeted lesbians' but then after 30 minutes I'm like, no this is a lesbian movie. 

To be clear, this movie came out 30 years ago so it's never explicitly said that they are gay, but it's also not exactly subtle. This is a story about "friendship" and two girls essentially rescuing each other. I actually thought it was super effective. The two actresses had unbelievable chemistry in my opinion, making their relationship super believable and compelling. They recover from past traumas, open a diner in the deep south, and care for each other. It's super sweet, and they are super different characters so it was cool to see them bond. 

As a movie, this one is definitely a little odd. It has a strange narrative structure which I kinda liked for its uniqueness, but was totally unnecessary and introduced some silly side plots that didn't seem super connected to the main plot. Maybe there was more to it, but it just felt like distracting interludes away from a pretty good story. 

There are other little nitpicks, like it being a little over-dramatic and silly at times, but overall I dug this one. Oh! And I totally forgot about the racism subplot that was probably very progressive for the times, but doesn't really work now. 

Recommend if you're into 90s comedy/drama lesbian indie films.