If You Like ‘Fleabag’ and Sally Rooney Novels, Don’t Miss ‘The Worst Person in the World’


There’s also something specifically millennial about Julie’s experience. When she turns 30, she compares her accomplishments with what her mother, grandmother, and other female ancestors had achieved by that age. All had done more, including the one who died in her 20s. There is perhaps less pressure than ever on women to settle down and raise a family by a certain year, but this freedom raises a question: If not that, what are we supposed to do? Julie doesn’t have a sparkling career to show off. She hasn’t made the world a better place. She hasn’t even really traveled. All she did in her 20s was be in her 20s. To paraphrase Lesley Gore, she was young, and she loved to be young.

The question of kids haunts her relationship with an older guy who’s ready to be a dad. As they struggle with whether or not to move forward, I wanted to yell at them, “Just get a dog! You’ll learn some responsibility and it’ll be fun!” But that’s not really the point. They are at “different life stages,” and life stages can’t be rushed (or at least, they shouldn’t be). In her next relationship, there is anxiety over the state of the world. The climate, in particular. Everyone born after a certain point, it seems, missed out on going to record stores and instead carries constant guilt over using too much plastic. Hard to argue with that.

Even more spoilers—ahoy: By the end, the problem of youth has solved itself because life moves on whether you want it to or not. Julie gets pregnant accidentally and visits her ex, who is dying of pancreatic cancer. There they stand, both with something unexpected growing inside them, and they still have love for each other, but it doesn’t matter. She could soon be a mother; he will soon be a corpse. They are still at different life stages. Later, though still in the very, very early stages of the pregnancy, Julie miscarries. We’re not in control. Time does what it wants. Having lost her first grown-up love and her (presumably) first embryo, Julie is a full-on adult. It’s good and it’s sad and it’s both.

A Sally Rooney story for the big screen, The Worst Person in the World is tender, moving, and Boyhood-level real. It’s a slice of life without being overly sentimental. Every moment feels earned; every line of dialogue rings true. But I still don’t get the title. Maybe I will when I’m older.

Elizabeth Logan has written for Vulture, The Awl, Reductress, Above Average, Indiewire, and NoBudge. She is a graduate of NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts and the owner of one black cat. You can (and should!) follow her on Twitter @lizzzzzielogan.





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