Movie Loving Annabelle

[Roxanna Bornemann]

Thebare bones description of this movie is that Annabelle, the rebellious daughter of a lady senator who seems uninterested in raising her own kid, falls in love with and pursues her soft-spoken poetry teacher at an all-girls Catholic boarding school.

When Annabelle comes out to her roommates, they react better than any of my Catholic high school friends had reacted to the hypothetical concept of having a gay friend, and in fact overall better than most of my college friends had when I cautiously mentioned I might not be particularly straight. Annabelle was so out and fine with being gay, watching her felt like being in a desert and someone telling me there was a watering hole up ahead if I just keep going.

As an adult, though I obviously find it wildly inappropriate and would never ever condone such activities in real life, in this fictional situation, I can understand the appeal. Annabelle represented the life Simone never had. She was this out and proud teenager while Simone was faking her way through a relationship with a man after being shoved back in the closet, forced to only eye queer couples across the bar longingly.

Throughout the rest of the movie I continued to relate to Simone; I too fantasized about girls in church, for example. And Annabelle continued to represent the kind of girl I fantasized about; the kind of girl who would make the first move, for example.

Just a TV-loving, Twitter-addicted nerd who loves reading, watching, and writing about stories. One part Kara Danvers, two parts Waverly Earp, a dash of Cosima and an extra helping of my own brand of weirdo.

It is so hard to classify media into all bad, or all good categories. I love how you explain what you liked about it, but also explain how it is problematic. I saw it last year, as a baby gay and recognized that is problematic, and loved it any way!

I feel the same way about this movie. It is hard not to find myself as a teen under the covers of my bed in the middle of the night, watching it in a language that I still did not fully understand, watching things I did not fully understand, but feeling something never felt before. This feeling will never go away..

thanks autostraddle (generally) & Valerie Anne (specifically): at the time i saw this i was in a new city and out of touch with queer friends, but had no inclination to talk about it with the straight ppl around me. so i have apparently been waiting over a decade to talk about this film.

I was also a teenager when I first saw this movie. At the time, it was less about loving or not loving it and more about discovering content where women love each other romantically. I did love it, though. And it remains in my film collection up to this day.

This movie put a lot of effort into highlighting that Simone, the older woman, is Apprehensive and Cautious, while Annabelle, the underage girl, whether out of a lack of awareness for how severe the consequences of pursuing this would be or something else, is Insistent, Motivated and initiated most of the actual events that led them into a sexual encounter.

I love this film for very personal reasons and I am able to love it without reservations because I trust the two characters with each other. I trust Simone to give Annabelle room to be herself, to be young, to make mistakes, to have needs that Simone might not agree with or understand, for Annabelle to be in a different point in life than Simone. I trust Annabelle with Simone, despite her initial insistent pushing, to have agency in the relationship, to lead by example on how to be true to yourself and to love Simone, or leave if it stops working out. I trust them because the movie showed me their capacity to do just that. Comparatively, Bloomington showed me none of that and I really dislike that movie even though the situation in it was less controversial, because the younger person was older than 18.

You mostly summed up the same thoughts in my head, yeah I love this movie too, it has meant a lot to me, the age gap issue aside. The film honestly depicts all the emotions that a queer woman myself (whether watching as a teen or as an adult now) can relate too, makes one be able to empathise deeply with the characters and what they are going through. The film will always have a place in my heart.

I think this issue of teachers and students not being able to fall in love is nonsense. When I was a teenager, I was in love with at least 3 teachers. And then 17 years old is no longer a child, although the law is that 18 years old is the age of majority. In the end, I think the story is beautiful. I had several platonic crushes on teachers. And today I think I would have students if teaching were my profession.

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