Inspired by a novel of the same name, Uglies is an adaptation a long time in the making and rumors. Netflix finally brings the bestseller to life.
Uglies (2024) Netflix TV Film Review
A society is once destroyed by many different things is now a culture very different. It’s one where the sixteenth birthday of everyone is very different. On this day the teenagers undergo an operation where everyone becomes pretty and society is perfect and happy. Until then, living in the dormitory, there is no one but the uglies.
All of this and more is what everyone is told.
Tally Youngblood (Joey King) is one of the uglies but she is counting down the ninety some days until her operation and the alteration of her life forever. Her best friend Paris (Chase Stokes) is hours away from his new life. Leaving her behind he heads out to make a life in the city. Happy for him, Tally misses her best friend. When he doesn’t show up to their meeting place, Tally enters the forbidden world needing to see him. Doing this she sets into motion events that slowly unravel all she knows to be true.
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A film that has been in the works for years, and being a story familiar, Uglies is something likely many have been anticipating. It returns us to the kind of dystopian worlds of productions like Divergent. The film is all about high tech upgrades of our present technology but humanizes the story with its cute nicknames for characters. There is also a solid friendship between two characters and the usual kind of “first blush” of a possible love story which doesn’t have layers in the way iconic romances do but is still interesting.
Joey King is good in the role of Tally, playing a character warring with herself. Her plight is, in many ways, quite relatable. Everyone struggles to let go of things they’ve thought were good and true and honest, and while we may not understand her struggle trying to just survive, the former we can understand. Everyone else is good too and though I don’t know many of these actors, they are all good.
The film is quite sad though as it requires a heroine to give herself up. If you’re a fan of dystopian dramas or you want to feel nostalgic for some of the earlier teen young adult adaptations set in this kind of world, Uglies is entertaining. It’s relatively fun and puts rebels in the lead role of heroes as people struggle to keep their humanity.
You can stream Uglies exclusively on Netflix
Content: nothing much to note outside of the violence. A man snaps someone’s neck. People are “tortured” through surgeries and serums in an effort to change who someone is and remove their ability to make choices. A girl watches someone bathe (we only see the person from the waist on up). The film is TV-14.