Watched April 2026
Beautiful movie of girlhood glimpsed at a remove, told through the lens of men who romanticize the five Lisbon sisters.
My favorite line: “Oddly shaped emptiness mapped by what surrounded them, like countries we couldn’t name.”
- the unknowability and isolation of the girls
- metaphor of Detroit itself, where the movie is set, and its ghost town buildings after the decline of the auto industry
The scene playing records over the telephone was interesting. How particularly teenage to communicate feelings through music, all that can’t be put into words. The intimacy and presence of both parties, letting go of projections floating in the air
The movie is soaking, fully saturated with ennui and loneliness. Lux (played by Kristen Dunst) tries her hardest to seek connection through sex but quickly meets its emptiness after giving up her virginity to Trip who leaves her cold in the middle of the field after the dance. And yet years later, Trip recalls his time with Lux with utter fondness, still bought into the myth of the fantasy, idealizing the symbol more than the human underneath.
In a way this mirrors parasocial relationships through social media—the ease in which we discard public figures after behavior that we deem problematic or crude, after months or years of near worship and obsession. Humans have always relied on fantasy for sustenance, to stir up emotions.