Comments on: Starfish Recommendation Explained and Unraveled

By: Adam

Adam — Thu, 22 Oct 2020 02:43:54 +0000

In reply to Lauren.

I went to find answers for questions I had about the film and realized I understood the film better than most. So a few things.

One, it is established pretty early on that Grace killed herself, there is a noose in her house in her bathroom eluding to it.

Two, the man she sees without her face is her ex husband. The same man we see weeping on the beach and her telling she is sorry, as her other self disrobes to walk out into the wake with the other man she cheats on him with. She then “kills” this man. The reason her husband has a missing face in previous scenes is he has shot himself.

Three, the conversation she has with grace reaffirms some of the jumps in logic. Grace asks why she’s still wearing the ring. She says it’s basically to punish herself. She says to grace “I didn’t know” and Grace responds yes you did. This I think eludes to the fact that She had not spoke to Grace in some time because she was dealing with her husband killing himself and locking herself away. I think Grace was suffering from depression as she speaks about going to a doctor for more testing (she could have also had been sick, and their conversation could have been “I didn’t know” meaning I didn’t know you were so bad off).

What I do know is Aubrey did not cheat with Grace’s boyfriend. Grace talked about her fondly all the way up until she died.

By: Lisa

Lisa — Mon, 14 Sep 2020 13:35:09 +0000

In reply to Erika Lown. I feel like I need to rewatch this film again to understand my own comment! Ha!

By: Erika Lown

Erika Lown — Mon, 14 Sep 2020 03:59:28 +0000

In reply to Lisa. Yes!! Now is understand this move. Thank you, Lisa for your insight. I was completely going to curb this movie, to watch nevermore. After reading your comments, I want to go back and watch it again. This is why I love this website.

By: Min

Min — Sat, 01 Aug 2020 04:43:05 +0000

This movie has certain magic to me. I’ve been watching it more than 10 times this week. There are a few interesting details I found.
1. At the beginning of the movie, it says this is based on true story. I think this line set this movie up to be a sci-fi movie because it is truly about the end of the world, but not our world. The alien invasion occurred in Aubrey’s world and she was transported to our world at the end of the movie. The reason for this is based on a rather strange scene when Aubrey seemed to break the 4th wall (while listening to the 4th tape) and transported to a movie set (which seems to be making a movie called Starfish). There she saw her future self (not much older) talking to a man and saying: “Yeah, no, that’s actually true though. Yeah, that’s a very accurate drawing right there.” Aubrey’s future self seems to be describing her real experience of the alien monster invasion in her old world.

2. About Edward. I don’t think Edward killed himself after Aubrey cheated on him. When Aubrey call her mom, her mom asked Aubrey whether she saw Edward and whether had a chance to talk to him. So he should still be alive the night Aubrey broke into Grace’s apartment. After the cheating incident, Aubrey had such immense guilt that she could not look directly into Edward’s sorrow face. That is why in her dream, Edward’s face showed up as greatly damaged.

3. Aubrey’s guilt. Most part of the movie focuses on Aubrey’s grieve for Grace’s death and her guilt for not being with Grace while she’s ill. But there is a greater guilt buried deep inside because of her cheating on Edward. And that is the reason she could not come back to the town and be with Grace even though she knew Grace was ill as Grace told her in their conversation.

4. Grace’s tapes. Grace said she made those tapes in the hope that Aubrey would be able to find them and save the world. I think what Grace really wanted is for Aubrey to be able to save herself. That is the reason she hid the tapes in several places around the town. Those places are, not only the share memories between Grace and Aubrey, but also the share memories between Aubrey and Edward. We can see Aubrey’s memory flashback of her and Edward in several places of the town at the end of the movie. By forcing herself to walk through those places, Aubrey can finally gather courage to face her guilt (and can finally look directly into Edward’s sad face and say sorry to him).

5. Forgive and forget. After seeing the hidden messages, Aubrey finally realized Grace’s intention. Grace was not asking Aubrey to save the world (otherwise she should provide some clues how to use the tapes). She wanted Aubrey to save herself by forgiving and forgetting. In the end, without guilt or remorse, Aubrey can finally let her memories with Edward pass through her and move on to a new world (both figuratively and literally).

By: Mirabylia

Mirabylia — Fri, 31 Jul 2020 17:18:23 +0000

“Music is a code, it can fight our wars (all wars seem to have their own “soundtrack”), music can definitely bring out our demons or chase them away, and music can make us feel more, or less, alive. Music touches people and I believe that is what the whole music/code in the movie is about.”
WOW! I don’t even know why I didn’t think about it. Probably because music is not just important in my life, but so evident… I guess music almost always surrounding me since I was born. To me it is like breathing.
Most of the movies that I like so much are those with good soundtrack.
Well, it’s a very subjective thing… I mean what is good (music, movie ect.) and what’s not. I have fav songs that are toooo depressed for my surroundings, but for me these are calming/soothing.
“all wars seem to have their own “soundtrack”” Yes! Like a song that remind us a brakeup or a real war. I don’t like brakeup reminders so I cure myself with looping the song ’til it doesn’t hurt anymore. But I like “war songs” because I think we should remember those thing. Those awful things what we should try to avoid in the future.
MGM, thank you for highlighting the matte of music! :) Funny thing, I don’t really think about it even if it had an important emotional impact on me when I saw the movie. (I like so much movie soundtracks. I think music is a very important part of any film.)

By: Mirabylia

Mirabylia — Fri, 31 Jul 2020 16:56:26 +0000

“This movie has not an explanation, you are the explanation. Depends on your feeling what you can see and feel. […] …, it depends on your feeling. It is a movie not for everyone and you must be very clever and opend.
Somtimes I feel like her, driffting in different worlds.”
I agree! Esp. with these: you are the explanation, it depends on your feeling.
People react differently on the same thing because they have different past, experiences and emotionals.
This is always in my mind, and I can’t understand how most of the peolpe can think that our past is in behind us. I think our past is “here with us” in every minute and almost in everything we say or do. What we did or happened to us is following us like a shadow/highlight. It is sometimes pop up or disappearing depends on the darkness and lights in our life but always there, hiding somewhere… It is necessary, we need it as we need oxygen. We need contrast in our life. Just sometimes the dark is too dark to survive.
BTW sometimes or most of the times I myself drifting too. :) For me it is a good thing, but I know that most of the people are not able to understand this. (I know it because they told me.)

By: David Reyes

David Reyes — Tue, 28 Jul 2020 06:30:53 +0000

From my POV, she felt guilt about leaving her alone, and she cheated on her with her boyfriend. There is something very important in movie, a scene where appears a rope, a rope for suicide. This movie has not an explanation, you are the explanation. Depends on your feeling what you can see and feel.
Monster (aliens) for me means her bad decisions.
Tapes for me means the messages of her friend telling her she was not guilty.
And for me, the endind of the movie shows me that she killed herself, but not as we think, dying indeed, she killed herself that part of her that were not allowing to live in peace. The dome were the escape of her guilt, and when she listened to all the tapes, she realized her friend has forgiven her.
For that reason, when she at the table appears the message ” forgive and forget B&A” Wich mean her friend wanted to tell her that she is forgiven and she must forger…
But as I wrote, it depends on your feeling. It is a movie not for everyone and you must be very clever and opend.
Somtimes I feel like her, driffting in different worlds.

By: Rock

Rock — Wed, 08 Jul 2020 10:08:52 +0000

I loved everything about the film, except the *HUGE* plot hole that set *ALL* of Aubrey’s anton in motion. It was a complete fluke that she ever stumbled upon all if Grace’s notes and tape #2. Everything else got nicely together, except the fact that she never would have known to stop listening to the man on the radio, and, you know, would have never been able to finish what Grace started. What a sad shame *almost* am incredible story.

By: Anon

Anon — Fri, 03 Apr 2020 08:07:35 +0000

I agree with commenters who suggest she cheated on her boyfriend, fled out of guilt, that he then killed himself, which kept her away despite her friend getting cancer.

The “I didn’t know”, “yes you did” exchange was her calling herself on her own BS. She knew Grace was sick

No face guy was because he must have shot himself and she was torturing herself with the horror of that

Guy in picture, and on beach, is who she cheated with “yeah i get the message”, and she drowned him in the vision (after he turned skeletal mind you) as a way of wanting to “kill” the mistake she had made

In the end there was no alien BS, that was all metaphor. There is a quick flash of a noose in the montage of shots of her surviving on the apartment. She went to her friends apartment, found a recorded message left for her, and killed herself out of grief, unable to allow herself to be forgiven