Oh dear, Look Both Ways!

Netflix and Chill, anyone? Well that was my exact mood last Thursday as I propped myself for a well-deserved movie night. Unlike my usual habit of checking out a few movies before deciding one, I settled on LOOK BOTH WAYS at first glance! 2 hours later, I was grinning at my screen like a chicken — coz what!! LOOK BOTH WAYS was a good one.

And from a writer's POV, it was a brilliant script!!!

Been crusading everyone since then to go watch the movie. The message is brilliant and uplifting in a not-too-cheesy way. Too many touchpoints / lessons in the movie honestly.

And as I have found myself beautifully sharing them with a couple of people since I saw it, I thought — why not share it here on the blog.

So, here I am:

Smiling again because writing about this hit-close-to-home story makes me joyful.

Now, let's get right to it:

First some background

Look Both Ways is a multiverse / alternative-realities movie that explores how our choices can lead to different outcomes and lives. It simultaneously shows two different versions of Natalie's (our 22-year-old heroine's) life after the night of her college graduation where she finds herself puking in the toilet and taking a pregnancy test.

Natalie's life A — she gets pregnant and as such had to forfeit her well curated 5-year plan of moving to LA and becoming a big time animator.

Natalie's life B — the pregnancy kit reads negative and she went to LA to chase her dream.

For someone like me, whose thoughts of alternative paths and what-ifs occupied my consciousness while being married and pregnant at 21, Look Both Ways perfectly explains what I now know I would tell my 21-year-old-about-to-become-a-mom-self years ago.

And so, that justice was done to the script of the movie is a thing of JOY for me!

So, moving on: 5 years later

Natalie A now has a 4-year-old she is grateful for, a cordial relationship with her baby daddy who loves her but she's too blind to see it. She is financially dependent on her parents, struggling with finding herself as an artist, joyful on a lot of days too but yet a bit resentful towards her friends as she scrolls through the highlight reel of their lives on social media.

Natalie B — having secured a slot as an assistant to her iconic role-model animator as she got to LA years ago, is realizing 5 years later that transitioning from assistant to animator isn't as easy as she had envisioned. She had recently convinced herself to show her animation profile to her boss.

That ended in tears 'cause her boss told her that although her work is good, it doesn't have the authenticity an artist's work should have — that it would be better if she quit her job and go spend some time finding herself. OUCH! I felt for her here. And just on the same day, her blossoming relationship with her boyfriend crashed because of distance. She left LA and went back home nearly penniless. She is seen weeping while her parents welcome her back home and console her.

To cut it short, LA Natalie wasn't in a great place and despite not being pregnant on her college graduation night, her 5-year plan still went to shit.

Pregnant Natalie too had recently found out that her baby daddy proposed to another woman and looking at her life where she's still dependent on her parents at 27 and behind in all things career, she felt like the only joy in her life is her baby. She is seen weeping while her parents console her.

So both alternatives at this juncture weren't in a great place.

Life isn't a bed of roses — whatever what-ifs, should-have-could-have-done versions of ourselves that we ruminate on in our alone time, the lesson here is to realize that there is never an alternate version of our lives where we have everything all figured out. Problems & tears are a normal part of life.

What happened next to both Natalies made me smile and that also confirms that as it is with life, the darkest storm in our lives only gives way to the brightest morning.

Natalie B also wipes her tears, and despite hating being back at her old room while nursing a heart break, is seen going back to all she learnt in LA, introspecting and coming up with a unique masterpiece animation that she then sent in to an iconic platform she had always wanted her piece to be featured on.

Natalie A wipes her tears and she is seen in a couple of scenes working tirelessly on her art — using all the domestic part of her life as inspiration for the work, and she came up with a masterpiece that she submitted on a big platform.

Both Natalies heard back

Natalie A is invited to be on a panel session with some giants in her industry including, wait for this — that icon she loved so much but couldn't go meet in LA because she was pregnant. Oh yes! She was uber excited as she got to explain the inspiration behind the work she sent in: her beautiful daughter.

What does this tell us? Everything we need at any given point is already in our lives.

"There is nothing wrong with this moment. I am not losing time taking care of my precious gifts. All that I need right now is in my life. I will open my eyes to see them and deliberately work it out by God's grace."

Natalie B finally lands her dream animation slot. Natalie A reconnects with her baby daddy.

Like Natalie I have come full circle and I am proud!

No matter what direction your life is headed right this minute, if you keep moving forward, you'd find happiness.

People of the blog, life is beautiful!!!! May that continue to be our testimony!!!

#Selah

Xoxo,
DA