ELLA: Hey ya’ll, it’s me, Ella.
STELLA: And I’m Stella. Welcome back to another episode of Media Meltdown.
ELLA: Today, we’re going to discuss a very popular movie from 2024, “It Ends With Us.” “It Ends With Us” is an emotional movie about a woman’s journey through her struggles with domestic violence. It is a complete work of fiction based on a very real struggle many women faced.
STELLA: If you haven’t seen “It Ends With Us,” you should know it features a young woman in her 20s named Lily. Lily grew up with a dad who abused her mom, and she vows to never let herself experience the abuse that her mom did, and not leave the marriage, however, slowly Lily becomes wrapped up in a domestic violence situation because of her boyfriend. She realizes everything her mom went through, and along the way, she reunites with her first love, Atlas. Atlas tries to help her with her abusive situation, but Ryle ends up finding out, and it only escalates things.
ELLA: While this is fiction, the story many women go through is real. According to the national hotline for victims of domestic abuse, 24 women are raped or stalked by their partner per minute. One in four women have been seriously injured from a partner’s abuse in their lifetime, and over half the female victims of rape say their assaulter was their partner.
So Stella, let’s get into our movie review. What are your thoughts on the movie?
STELLA: I thought it was a really good movie. Honestly, I think a lot of reviews agreed with me. I know there’s been a lot of drama among the cast, but looking past that, I think that the actual movie and the acting were really, really amazing. I loved the storyline, and everything Lily goes through is so like interesting to watch. Her thought process makes it seem very real on why and how she stayed. For those who haven’t seen the movie without trying to spoil anything, she and Ryle, her partner, are together and she ends up being with him for a very long time. After a certain point when he attempts to rape her- Well, there are three actual times that we see in the movie where he assaults her, the rape is like the final moment where she’s done with him, and she runs away. And I think that just really seeing her emotional journey behind that was really impactful.
ELLA: I agree about the movie. The actual idea of the movie and the plot of the movie were good. I enjoyed how it brought light on the sexual assault, and I don’t think we see that in a lot of movies, necessarily. I think the acting was very good. It was very realistic and didn’t feel superscripted. The one thing I would say, though, is I think, in some parts, it felt a little bit too much. In the sense that, I think, in the serious parts, it was good. But, at the same time, I feel like it was a little bit over… I’m trying to think of the word. Her acting was a little bit too much in some areas, to the point where it felt unreal.
STELLA: Not, not during the abuse?
ELLA: No, not during the abuse; that felt very valid.
STELLA: Yeah, I was scared for her, but during other parts, like with her friends and family, that was a little bit much.
ELLA: Yeah, no, the abuse parts were very, she did a very good job in acting that out, but when it came to, just like other parts of the scenes, as Ella said, Stella said it was a little bit too, I’m not gonna say fake, but it just did not feel super it didn’t flow.
STELLA: It didn’t work.
ELLA: Yeah.
STELLA: Did you have a favorite character at all?
ELLA: I mean, I like the main character. I just, I don’t know, did you?
STELLA: I did like Lily. I also really liked Atlas. I mean, of course, how can you not know he’s like her superhero? For context, they (Lily and Atlas) had a relationship when they were teenagers. He was a homeless teenager living in this run-down place next to Lily’s house, and she started helping him, giving him food and a place to live. And they end up sharing a moment. They end up becoming really close. I know we’ve spoken about Lily’s dad being abusive to her mom. Well, there’s a part where her dad catches her and Atlas together and beats Atlas up. I think in the book, it says he beats him (Atlas) up with a baseball bat so badly that he ends up having to go to the hospital and almost dies. To see Atlas come back and whenever she first reunites with him, he’s immediately…They fall right back into their old way of things. Immediately, he’s like a guardian over her. He’s caring for her. And Atlas was the person who kind of told her to step away from Ryle, her abusive partner.
Now, this is a whole other aspect of the movie, which we could honestly do a whole other episode about. But I know there’s a lot of drama surrounding the movie. Did you hear about it?
ELLA: I know a lot of people liked the movie.
STELLA: No, the drama with the cast.
ELLA: Oh, that no, should we further explain?
STELLA: Share the tea. So apparently, what happened was, during press interviews, Blake Lively, who plays the main character, Lily-
ELLA: Oh yeah!
STELLA: She was telling everyone during press… She was like, “Come on, girlies, go grab your florals and your best friends and come see the movie!” And a lot of people were pretty disturbed by that, which rightfully so. Because I think if it’s a movie about domestic violence and surrounding domestic violence, you’d think she would talk about that more.
ELLA: Yeah.
STELLA: And she was encouraging her hair brand.
ELLA: Did you see the interview that was circulating with her?
STELLA: The one from, like, 2012?
ELLA: Yeah.
STELLA: A lot of people are bringing that up and saying that the way she was acting was…Was that the one where she told the interviewer…?
ELLA: Yeah, so, a little background: Blake Lively had a previous history of not being the…nicest person.
STELLA: You want to give an example of what happened in the interview?
ELLA: So she got interviewed in 2012 or 2013, and she’s pregnant. At the time, the interviewer-
STELLA: Blake Lively was pregnant, not the interviewer.
ELLA: Yeah. So, the interviewer, was like, “Oh, congratulations for having a kid, and whatever.
STELLA: Well, the interviewer said, “Congrats on your little bump.” And Blake Lively says…
ELLA: “Congrats on your little bump.” And the interviewer was, in fact, not pregnant. She was pretty skinny too, and very offended by that.
STELLA: Yeah, I have something to share about that. I watched this video online debriefing, all of the drama. And I would say the guy who debriefed it, he seemed very fair, and he showed both sides because he said that what also happened, was that a lot of the cast was against each other. He said the main, guy in the movie, Ryle, he’s the domestic abuser in the movie. He (the actor) was also the director of the movie. And he and Blake Lively have some type of rivalry or disagreement. And yet something happened, and the whole cast took Blake Lively’s side or something like that. What was a cool thing was that, apparently, he hired a PR team. And it was the same PR team that Johnny Depp hired during the Johnny Depp trial. And possibly they (the PR team) had that interviewer resurface the clip and post it just to get down on Blake Lively, which is some real drama.
Now, I don’t think that should take away at all from the film.
ELLA: It’s like when you look at the background of the actors, what a lot of people are getting mad about, what the interview from back then versus now was that the people are getting mad at her. And they (the people, fans) were like, hey, like, you really can’t bring out the movie like you are. You have to, really talk about, what the effects are like, and explain, really the depth of the movie and what it represents. And she didn’t do that, and a lot of people are getting mad. And she was very mean to the media about it. So a lot of people are like, “Oh! Look at this. Look at her from back then and now, she hasn’t changed. She’s so mean.” but in general, it’s, but it does seem very staged. There does seem some drama.
STELLA: Like what I said about how he hired the PR team to deal with it, and then the same interviewer, like, resurfaced the clip, yeah?
ELLA: So, putting the drama aside, the movie is amazing. The movie was really good. I wish they would have chosen a different actor other than Blake Lively, though.
STELLA: I like, I agree a little bit, just because her acting was so good that it’s just the way she, did the media. It just seems like she was promoting herself and her husband.
ELLA: Yeah, yeah.
STELLA: And it was like, the movie’s not about that. It’s not about you. It’s about all the women across the world who have experienced this, and that’s what we need to focus on. I also think one more thing about that, um… Oh, shoot, did I forget? I think I did forget… Oh! One more thing I wish I had seen was the movie, not about the domestic violence or the way that the marketing handled the plot. I wish we saw more of Atlas because I feel like it is in the book. In the book, people talked so much about Atlas, and they were like, he’s so romantic, he’s so amazing. And then I watched the movie, and I feel like he was in there for like two scenes and then never showed up again. I know that’s not what the movie’s about, but part of me was just like, where did Atlas go? Like, did he just disappear? I don’t understand.
ELLA: I agree. It was like a little… yeah. Anyways, guys, we hope you enjoyed this episode of media meltdown, where we melt down, “It Ends With Us.”
Anyway, y’all, have a very good day!
STELLA: I’m Stella.
ELLA: I’m Ella.
STELLA: And this is Media Meltdown.
ELLA: Bye!
