Overexposed (2018 Lifetime)
Stars: Mary Katherine Duhon, Marguerite Moreau, David Maldonado
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Synopsis (via Lifetime)
A gritty thriller dealing with topical social issues. The story of a teen girl caught up in a sexting scandal that leads to panic, outrage, and murder.
Thoughts
The movie starts with a disclaimer about “sexting” like it is the most novel idea ever. Then we see some digging a grave while a teenaged girl struggles to wake up.
Cut to a teenager’s bedroom, her name is Erin, and she is texting with a boy named Taylor. He sends her a shirtless pic and asks her to do the same. Erin is not having, but after persistent prodding, she caves and sends him multiple topless pics. VIA TEXT. (If this movie consulted one teenager, they would have learned that Snapchat is where the nudes are at.)
Marguerite Moreau, Lifetime MVP, plays Erin’s cop mother, Sheila. (Who is up for reflection of Sherrif of the town.)
Erin blows off the election campaign rally to go on a date with Taylor. He comes over to the house and is cute. They look at old photos of her and laugh. Things take a turn when Taylor’s pressuring behavior also happens in person. When she turns down his sexual advances, he uses the topless pics against her and blackmails her. He is about to text the whole baseball team her nudes when Erin reaches for his phone and knocking him down a flight of stairs. Taylor falls down the stairs and breaks his neck. He DEAD!!!! (Then a bunch of text from other girls pop up on the screen over his dead face to show that he has done this kind of thing before.)
As Sheila giver her speech, Erin is home, deleting her nude pics from Taylor’s phone and crying over his dead body. Then she drags his body out the front door to hide it under some leaves in her back yard and drives his car to a train track and abandons it. The next morning, Erin asks her mom about hiding a body and getting away with murder. Then she calls her friend Joanna to help get rid of the body. (We get shots of bugs crawling out of Tyler’s nose, which is so gross. That poor actor.) They bury the body in a field.
Taylor’s car is found, and it kicks off an investigation and search. Erin convinces her mom to let her come with her to work. When she is there, Eric destroys evidence while her mom is not looking. (ERIN! That is not cool, but good on you using nepotism to your advantage, I guess.)
The body is found in a shallow grave, and a murder investigation begins. Taylor’s father holds a candlelit memorial for him. Erin and Joanna attend to keep up appearances. Tyler’s hot brother Jimmy is there and bonds with Erin over his grief.
Since Sheila is adequate at her job, she recovers the footage from Taylor’s cellphone. She recognizes Joanna on the phone and sees that Taylor wasn’t a good guy. Sheila asks Erin about Joanna’s relationship with Taylor, and Erin is vague. Erin joins her mother while she interrogates the girls from Taylor’s text messages or SEXT MESSAGES. (I think it may be time to end, take your daughter to work day.)
Evidence is taken from the body, and Joanna’s DNA is on the body. (She spat on him when she was burying the body.) Erin overhears a conversation and warns Joanna, who goes on the run from the cops.
Erin and Jimmy keep running into one another and have romantic chemistry. (Which is weird, because she killed his brother and covered up the murder.) They even sit in a diner and talk about his feelings while eating pancakes. They even continue to text flirt or “Fext.” (JK.) Erin is a cold-hearted bitch.
Someone leaks Erin’s nude picks to the school and stuffs printed copies in her locker. She leaves school and rushes to Jimmy for comfort. He holds her in his strong, handsome arms and tells her that she is a good person. They have sex, and afterward, Jimmy asks if he smells like sawdust? He goes to take a shower, leaving Erin to look at his wall of photos.
Sheila doesn’t win the election for Sheriff. The man who wins has it out for Erin and is suspicious of her. A friend of Erin’s tells her about the nudes leaking in school. Sheila searches the town for her daughter.
Just as Erin is about to come clean to Jimmy about killing his brother, the new Sheriff breaks into the house and gets into a scuffle with Jimmy. Erin grabs a phone and calls her mother to get help. As she is talking on the cellphone, she realizes it is not hers and finds it was used to leak her nudes. Jimmy is the one who sent them. Before she can run, a shirtless and hot Jimmy punches her in the face. (That part is not hot.)
Erin wakes up as Jimmy digs her grave; it is the same location where she buried Taylor. He tells her that she is a slut, just like Joanna. (Who I guess he also killed?) Erin tells him that he is right; she deserves this treatment for what she did to Taylor. Jimmy says that he really liked Erin and that he taught Taylor how to blackmail girls. As he is talking, the new Sheriff attempts to free himself and get to his gun. It works, and the new Sherrif shoots Jimmy. Jimmy grabs the gun and shoots him back.
Sheila arrives on the scene and handles her business. Jimmy, while still hot, is handcuffed and taken away. The new Sheriff is taken away in an ambulance. Sheila tells her daughter that she is not to blame for Taylor’s death and promises things will go back to normal.
THE END!
Side Note
Minority Report: Some people n the town hall.
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Overall rating
🔪🔪🔪🔪 (4 Knives)
🍷🍷🍷 (3 glasses of wine required.)
*Photo Credit: © 2018 Lifetime
I Truly Do Appreciate These Movie Explanations. However! Someone REALLY Needs To Edit Them. Such As… The Word Adequate. Did You Know That It Means Ok, Satisfactory, Another Words … Just Enough To Get By. However … The Way It Was Used … Attempted To imply That The Person Excelled At What She Was Doing.
Thank You For Your Time & For Doing These!
Thank you, Kris! I write these while drinking wine… which is not the best idea. I’d love an editor, I normally just run these through Grammerly before posting but that doesn’t help with context. 😅😅😅
I agree with the previous comment. Although I appreciate having a synopsis, the poor grammar and spelling really detract from your efforts. Maybe you should have your wine after you have finished writing.
Marguerite Moreau, who played a temptress to perfection on The OC in 2005. Rachel Bilson’s Summer Roberts wanted to throw down with Moreau’s Reed Carlson so bad.