{"id":594,"date":"2024-05-03T16:01:00","date_gmt":"2024-05-03T16:01:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dulcipass.net\/?p=594"},"modified":"2024-05-08T23:47:39","modified_gmt":"2024-05-08T23:47:39","slug":"forget-what-you-think-you-know-about-john-green-and-watch-turtles-all-the-way-down","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/dulcipass.net\/index.php\/2024\/05\/03\/forget-what-you-think-you-know-about-john-green-and-watch-turtles-all-the-way-down\/","title":{"rendered":"Forget what you think you know about John Green and watch Turtles All the Way Down"},"content":{"rendered":"<br \/>\n<figure>\n      <img alt=\"Aza and Daisy look in a mirror\" src=\"http:\/\/dulcipass.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/isabela_merced_cree.0.jpeg\" \/><figcaption>Image: New Line Cinema<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In director Hannah Marks\u2019 hands, Green\u2019s most personal novel turns into a wonderful movie<\/p>\n<p class=\"p--has-dropcap p-large-text\" id=\"QXzlop\">At the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/2019\/10\/28\/20932248\/hulu-looking-for-alaska-john-green-tumblr-fandom\">height of John Green\u2019s popularity,<\/a> most people knew the YA author for a very specific genre: sad teen books, usually about shy-yet-pretentious boys in love with spirited yet emotionally available girls. That was always a derogatory oversimplification of Green\u2019s novels, which often deconstruct common YA tropes more than they give into them. But years of warped online perspectives on Green\u2019s work, heightened by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tumblr.com\/babysung-blog\/136060997561\/books-characters-aesthetic-alaska-young-the\">aesthetic Tumblr posts <\/a>and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.pinterest.com\/pin\/383861568218028499\/?nic=1a\">Pinterest mood boards<\/a>, meant that when the 2014 movie adaptation of Green\u2019s tragic teen romance <em>The Fault in Our Stars<\/em> came out, the were calcified, preconceived notions of what a John Green Book\u2122 was. (Never mind that<em> The Fault in Our Stars <\/em>flipped the gender roles, with a reserved girl and a vivacious boy.) <\/p>\n<div class=\"c-float-right c-float-hang\">\n<aside id=\"0rFgIK\">\n<div data-anthem-component=\"actionbox\" data-anthem-component-data=\"{&quot;title&quot;:&quot;&lt;strong&gt;Hulu\u2019s Looking for Alaska overcomes 15 years of contentious John Green fandom&lt;\/strong&gt;&quot;,&quot;description&quot;:&quot;How the Hulu adaptation deconstructed John Green-isms&quot;,&quot;label&quot;:&quot;Read here&quot;,&quot;url&quot;:&quot;https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/2019\/10\/28\/20932248\/hulu-looking-for-alaska-john-green-tumblr-fandom&quot;}\"><\/div>\n<\/aside>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"bAqP0o\">As with many figures who get very popular \u2014 especially those whose niche fandom blows up into mainstream success \u2014 John Green and his assumed conventions became very uncool to like. And when the movie adaptation of Green\u2019s book <em>Paper Towns <\/em>released in 2015, detractors began <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/HobbyDrama\/comments\/ekgtb6\/ya_literature_that_time_tumblr_chased_john_green\/\">harassing and bullying him online<\/a> to such a degree that Green <a href=\"https:\/\/www.buzzfeed.com\/jarrylee\/john-green-responded-on-tumblr-to-accusations-of-sexual-abus\">left social media<\/a>. The vitriol against Green has since died down, though his work and the many adaptations based on his novels still inspire shallow readings based on a specific internet era. <\/p>\n<p id=\"SBQBRW\">But <em>Turtles All the Way Down<\/em>, a Max adaptation of Green\u2019s 2017 novel, steps away from those previous conventions \u2014 which is interesting, considering Green has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanityfair.com\/hollywood\/john-green-hannah-marks-turtles-all-the-way-down\">stated this is his most personal book<\/a>. It goes to show that what he\u2019s become known for doesn\u2019t actually speak to the power of his work. The coming-of-age drama follows a 16-year-old named Aza Holmes (played by Isabela Merced in the movie) grappling with OCD, and Green poured a lot of his own personal experience with the disorder into the novel. <\/p>\n<p id=\"LvVUmu\">[<strong>Ed. note:<\/strong> This post contains setup spoilers for <em>Turtles All the Way Down<\/em>.] <\/p>\n<div class=\"c-wide-block\">\n<figure class=\"e-image\">\n        <img alt=\"Aza and Davis about to kiss\" data-mask-text=\"false\" src=\"http:\/\/dulcipass.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/isabela_merced_felix_mallard.jpg\" \/><br \/>\n      <cite>Image: New Line Cinema<\/cite><br \/>\n  <\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"v4Ej9r\">Like many John Green stories, this one starts with a funky hook. Aza\u2019s best friend Daisy (Cree from <em>Big Sky<\/em>) finds out that the son of a fugitive billionaire is actually Aza\u2019s childhood crush, and urges them to reconnect, hoping she and Aza can find the missing billionaire and earn the FBI\u2019s $100 million reward. It\u2019s a hooky set up, much like that in Green\u2019s other works like <em>Paper Towns<\/em> (a popular girl going missing before graduation) or <em>An Abundance of Katherines<\/em> (a former childhood prodigy trying to create an algorithm to predict romantic success). <\/p>\n<p id=\"9ilowO\">But the key difference is that <em>Turtles<\/em>\u2019 quirky hook fades into the background once Aza reunites with her crush Davis (Felix Mallard). Sparks fly, and she\u2019s confronted with the possibility of a romantic relationship for the first time in her life. She starts thinking about her future and grappling with her disorder, and how it plays into every aspect of her life. The missing-father mystery fades into the background. (Davis isn\u2019t particularly concerned about his father, who he describes as a \u201cshitbag.\u201d) The novel is deeply internal \u2014 it focuses so much on Aza\u2019s thoughts and anxieties that <a href=\"https:\/\/www.vanityfair.com\/hollywood\/john-green-hannah-marks-turtles-all-the-way-down\">Green himself doubted it could be translated to film<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p id=\"EgqC8b\">And yet director Hannah Marks (<em>Don\u2019t Make Me Go<\/em>) pulls it off. She and screenwriters Elizabeth Berger and Isaac Aptaker do a fantastic job of conveying Aza\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/iocdf.org\/blog\/2023\/04\/28\/how-to-stop-ocd-thought-loops\/\">thought spirals<\/a>: When Aza\u2019s anxieties overwhelm her, her inner monologue slowly overtakes the dialogue, and the present scene starts getting interrupted with flashing images of Aza\u2019s worries, usually involving bacteria and microbes. Translating this kind of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.polygon.com\/23863315\/aristotle-and-dante-discover-the-secrets-of-the-universe-movie-review-queer-romance\">internality from page to screen<\/a> isn\u2019t easy, but instead of forgoing it completely, Marks uses sound and visuals to enhance Aza\u2019s inner dialogue. The result is achingly raw.<\/p>\n<div class=\"c-wide-block\">\n<figure class=\"e-image\">\n        <img alt=\"Aza looking haunted in Turtles All the Way Down\" data-mask-text=\"false\" src=\"http:\/\/dulcipass.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/isabela_merced__1_.jpg\" \/><br \/>\n      <cite>Image: New Line Cinema<\/cite><br \/>\n  <\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"EIogwG\">Unlike past John Green movies, particularly <em>The Fault in Our Stars<\/em>, <em>Turtles All the Way Down<\/em> limits the romance plot to a scant thread. It\u2019s probably the weakest point of the movie, partially because Mallard is a little too suave to play the dorky yet endearing Davis. We get a sense that Felix and Aza shared a connection when they met years ago at a camp for bereaved kids, but their instant attraction to each other as teenagers is a little hard to buy. That\u2019s OK because <em>Turtles All the Way Down<\/em> isn\u2019t really a romance story.<\/p>\n<p id=\"XvgKa7\">What really drives the book and movie is how Aza struggles with OCD, the thread most personal to Green. Marks\u2019 team adds a little more external plot to give the film shape, including a brief side quest to Northwestern University to meet a professor Aza idolizes. But the heart of the movie all comes back to Aza\u2019s internal life. Merced portrays her fantastically: her anxieties, her awkwardness, her desperation to be normal and to be taken seriously. Cree also does a phenomenal job as Daisy, the fanfic-writing best friend who tries her best to root for Aza, but can\u2019t always handle Aza\u2019s more difficult moments. (I\u2019ll almost forgive Daisy\u2019s fanfic site for having a large image of her face on it, because she\u2019s such a great character; but c\u2019mon, who puts their real name <em>and face <\/em>on fic?)<\/p>\n<div class=\"c-wide-block\">\n<figure class=\"e-image\">\n        <img alt=\"Aza and Daisy look in a mirror\" data-mask-text=\"false\" src=\"http:\/\/dulcipass.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/05\/isabela_merced_cree.jpeg\" \/><br \/>\n      <cite>Image: New Line Cinema<\/cite><br \/>\n  <\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<p id=\"eIS4JK\">It\u2019s actually another common John Green-ism to have a quirky best friend who gets a little sidelined in the story to make way for the main romance, but Aza and Daisy\u2019s friendship is the biggest driving force here. They have realistic banter and a solid friendship, but the movie shines when that friendship is tested. One of the most chilling scenes is a fight they have while driving, which escalates into the movie\u2019s climax. Their friendship must literally be broken apart in order to be repaired.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-end-para\" id=\"p2k3W4\">In a way, Max\u2019s<em> Turtles All the Way Down<\/em> is an anti-John Green adaptation \u2014 at least, it\u2019s anti preconceived notions of John Green. He\u2019s been trying from his very first novel to deconstruct the tropes he accidentally became known for. But sometimes it takes an outside hand to free a story from judgment and give it a new form, so it can shine without an author\u2019s (however ill-attributed) reputation on it. Marks crafts a fulfilling coming-of-age story from Green\u2019s book. <em>Turtles <\/em>has familiar John Green touchpoints \u2014 a gimmicky story setup, a teen romance, a quirky best friend \u2014 but it turns the story inward and pulls off a fantastic character exploration, one that feels like a gut-punch in its best moments.<\/p>\n<p id=\"SfpLm8\"><small><em>Turtles All the Way Down<\/em><\/small><small> is now streaming on Max. <\/small><\/p>\n<p id=\"GwL7hm\">\n<p id=\"GqtrSc\">\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Image: New Line Cinema In director Hannah Marks\u2019 hands, Green\u2019s most personal novel turns into a wonderful movie ...<\/p>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":596,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/dulcipass.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/dulcipass.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/dulcipass.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dulcipass.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dulcipass.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=594"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/dulcipass.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":601,"href":"http:\/\/dulcipass.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594\/revisions\/601"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dulcipass.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/596"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/dulcipass.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dulcipass.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/dulcipass.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}