5/10
Doesn't deserve all the bad reviews
24 June 2018
Below Her Mouth isn't the best movie ever written, it's not original or well-thought out, but it has a lot of good points.

Firstly, though neither of the main actresses Natalie Krill (Jasmine) and Erika Linder (Dallas) are amazingly talented, their chemistry is fantastic. Although the relationship between the characters develops at an incredibly fast pace, the electric chemistry between Natalie and Erika sells it and makes it believable. The sex scenes were a lot more explicit than I expected (I didn't watch the trailer or know anything about the movie before watching, so went in blind and was a little surprised) but incredibly erotic and sensual. For those reviewers saying the sex scenes were awkward or boring, they must have been watching something different to me. I could feel the attraction and connection between the two characters through the sex scenes. It definitely wasn't porn in the traditional sense because none of it felt mechanical, it was as though I was genuinely watching two people having raw, intimate and vulnerable sex.

The movie is guilty of playing into some over-used stereotypes by writing Dallas as the butch, mean and dominant lesbian and Jasmine the meek, confused femme lesbian that cheats on her fiance. Generally, there also wasn't much development for the characters or as much insight into them as people as there could've been. However, I do think the romance between the two women made sense. You could feel the loneliness of Dallas and Jasmine at the beginning and that there was something missing in their lives. They had a magnetic pull and in each other found that spark that had been missing. Dallas found someone she wanted to open up to and be vulnerable with and Dallas allowed Jasmine to finally feel all the emotions she'd been suppressing since she was a child and release all that pent up tension and unhappiness that came from denying her sexuality for so long.

Admittedly, there wasn't much plot and the sex and romance is really all there is, but if people dig a little deeper with this move there are actually some very important messages contained within it. It shows how difficult it can be to be who we truly are and be honest with ourselves about what/who we want, and that sometimes it's not always easy to label ourselves one way or another. Dallas said she knew she was attracted to women from a young age, it was a simple choice for her, but Jasmine didn't have that same clarity. In that respect, it shows some of the struggles people can come up against in discovering who they are or the inner turmoil people can go through when they're confused about their sexuality.

Overall, Below Her Mouth isn't a great movie, but it's not terrible either. It would have benefited from more character development and plot and perhaps a little less sex, but was still a reasonably engaging movie.
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