Has Bella Thorne Found Her Niche With The New Netflix Thriller ‘You Get Me’?

Popping up on Netflix today is You Get Me, which might just appear to be a Lifetime movie for teens, and that’s because it is. But underneath the clingy, psycho girl at the center, something interesting is at play.

You Get Me stars Bella Thorne as Holly, the crazy lady character of the thriller. Best known for her role on Disney Channel’s Shake It Off!, opposite Zendaya, who is gearing up for a major moment with her role in Spider-Man: Homecoming, Thorne could be carving out an interesting career for herself. She’s also appeared in Adam Sandler’s Blended, and the surprisingly great teen comedy, The Duff, and recently starred in the Freeform series, Famous In Love. But with this new Netflix film in the world now, she should expect a lot more offers to play demented damsels, because she is great at it.

If you’ve seen this story once, you’ve seen it a million times: Tyler (Taylor John Smith) is a sensitive teen, and we know this because he spends a lot of time with his younger sister. He meets Alison (Halston Sage) and it is Love. At. First. Sight. Oh, but when the two bump into her ex at a party and he learns she’s, to quote Britney Spears, “not that innocent,” they go on to “break up” via a flimsier argument than, “We were on a break.”

But what would you know, Holly pulls up at just the right moment, whisking Tyler away for the night of his life. It would simply be false to say it’s not sexy as they drive away with the top down, but the second he allows her to grab his phone and take it away from him, that’s when the moment loses you. Come on, no one lets a stranger take their phone, no matter how pissed they are that their girlfriend just broke their very fragile ego.

The two go on to gyrate their worries away to EDM in flashes of colorful strobe lights, as Holly tongue-passes a pill to Tyler and promises him, “If you swallow, I’ll swallow.” She makes good on her word in the bathroom (presumably), and the next morning they’re waking up in a house that looks like an Apple store, with her lounging in only a full face of makeup, her underwear (the first of many times) and his shirt (sigh, cliché), purring, “You found me.” No two ways about it, she knows how to suck him in.

Anyone who has had a one night stand will tell you they spend the next day (or 3) showering it off, not living in the fantasy world these two create over the next 24 hours, chatting by the fire (her in underwear and a cardigan?), having a picnic outside, taking the inevitable skinny dip, having this conversation: “Soo, last night happened.” “Yeah, I guess it did.” But perhaps the most unreasonable detail lies in the fact that he’s having SO much fun that he never charges his phone. Really? That’s even less believable than the fact that neither of these teens (yes, TEENS) have a parent within a 100 mile radius.

Tyler comes to his senses and heads home, but not before telling Holly that their time together was “special” (Alert! Alert!), and is shooting desperate texts to Alison, with the two of them reacquainting the NEXT MORNING, and quickly dropping more L-bombs than week 8 of The Bachelor. But if you think that is shocking, just wait until they show up at school to realize — gasp — Holly has transferred to their school!

She wastes no time infiltrating the friend group and bringing Tyler to the verge of tears and anxiety shakes every time she’s in his sight, holding their night/day of passion over his head while clinging on to both him and Alison. Suspicion starts to build when she says she erased her online presence a year ago due to a “cleanse,” and friends start to get a “feeling” about her. Holly continues to manipulate Tyler, Alison, and anyone else she comes into contact with, as the film builds to an ending so obvious it’s almost shocking. Not shocking though, is Thorne strutting around in her undergarments for the climax (of the film).

Thorne has truly found her groove as the bitchy, unhinged teen, pinging back and forth from sexy to stalker in the blink of her fierce eyes. The suspense build enough throughout, but the action is semi-dulled. The film misses out on the opportunity to comment on mental health, which actually feels like a total relief: after analyzing every single detail of suicide sensation 13 Reasons Why this spring, and prepping for the upcoming eating disorder flick, To The Bone, just let the teens enjoy a psycho bitch stalker movie for now.

You Get Me is the training bra version of a Lifetime movie, and will be many viewers’ first introduction to the guilty pleasure genre and the trope of a mentally ill woman out for revenge, love, and death at the same time. The cinematography, with gorgeous overhead shots of pools and beaches, is probably better than this film deserves, as is the music that both thumps and haunts scenes with synth and teen pop. But if Thorne (wisely) sticks to villain roles, we’ll look back at You Get Me as the film that truly first “got” her.

Where to watch You Get Me