Sierra Burgess is smart. Sierra Burgess is driven. Sierra Burgess isn’t into the typical trappings of high school. Sierra Burgess is her own woman. Sierra Burgess is… a loser? In Netflix’s latest high-school set rom-com — joining the likes of “The Kissing Booth” and “Alex Strangelove” — beloved “Stranger Things” breakout Shannon Purser stars as the eponymous Sierra Burgess, who is not a loser, at least by her own approximation (or that of anyone who values cool stuff like brains and ambition). But in the teenage wilds of high school, she’s just not cool.
Can a romance change that? Should it?
In “Sierra Burgess Is a Loser,” Purser’s Sierra is on track to getting the hell out of her high school nightmare — bolstered by some very impressive SAT scores — but she’s hamstrung by the fact that there’s not much else that seems to make her stand out. That’s a tough enough pill to swallow, but it gets worse when a phone number mixup brings a cute classmate into her orbit.
Jamey (Noah Centineo) thinks that he’s texting resident mean girl Veronica (Kristine Froseth), but he’s really chatting with Sierra. It’s a modern spin on the classic Cyrano de Bergerac story, spiced up with a smattering of catfishing. Will Sierra be found out? Will Veronica really help her? And when was the last time a film relied on Skype’s known audio lags to sell a big plot point?
The film also stars RJ Cyler, Chrissy Metz, and Lea Thompson. It was directed by first-time feature filmmaker Ian Samuels and written by Lindsay Beer (who is also on deck to write that new “Silver & Black” film, in addition to packing a slew of big-time writers room credits).
Check out the first trailer for “Sierra Burgess Is a Loser” below. The film will launch globally on Netflix on September 7.
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