'Laggies' Filmmaker Thinks There Should Be More 'Women In Crisis' Onscreen

"Laggies" filmmaker Lynn Shelton is all about seeing more women in the screen - women who are not as put together, are haggard and totally at loss with life. After all, this is the reality.

In an interview with Variety, the filmmaker talks of "Laggies," a movie centred on a woman in her 20s, Meg (played by Keira Knightley) who still do not have an idea of what she truly wants with life and ran away when she was suddenly proposed to by her boyfriend (Mark Webber). While women in their 20s would jump at the prospect of getting married and starting a new chapter in their lives, Meg decided that she still needs time figuring what she wants to do with her life.

In the process of self-revelation, she bunked with a high schooler, played by Chloe Grace Moretz, and her single father, played by Sam Rockwell. According to the filmmaker, even though she did not write the movie, she felt like it's a script that she could have penned herself. This is the first time she is going to direct something that she was not the writer as well, so it's a good thing that she understands and engages with the material.

"It felt, when I read it, like a movie I could've written. I felt like Andrea (Siegel, "Laggies" screenwriter), and I have a lot of the same kinds of concerns in terms of just wanting to represent people who feel real on screen," she shared. The filmmaker also shared that its nice to see female leads face the same issues that male leads often do on movies: quarter-life crisis, identity confusion, and finding one's purpose.

Instead of hiding such women from the screen, the filmmaker believes in showcasing more of these women. "I feel like, a lot of times, women get relegated to roles where they're expected to have their act together, and they're the mature one waiting around for the boyfriend or the husband."

The fimmaker claims that it is high time that more flawed and yet more "real" woman are represented in the movies. Unfortunately, the film did not earn a good review from New York Daily News. According to the site, it feels like a step backward from Lynn Sheldon's earlier works, which she wrote herself, like "Humpday" and "Your Sister's Sisters."