Netflix’s latest Turkish film, You Do You, has nothing new to offer in the romcom realm. It begins with a shot tracing the heights of a building and peeks voyeuristically into a window, where we meet Merve (Ahsen Eroglu), the protagonist. There is a bit of a fourth wall breaking when she tells us that we will be watching her life unfold in real-time.
An aspiring fashion designer, she is constantly being coaxed by her former star-journalist mother to make use of her business degree and get a job. But, like most dreamers, Merve is hell-bent on following her heart. That is until she finds out that her estranged father has decided to sell her childhood home. As luck would have it, one thing leads to another and she ends up founding a dating app along with her friends, to secure herself financially.
It is on this app that she discovers the other side of her arch nemesis, Anil Gurman (Mehmet Ozan Dolunay): ruthless businessman, the buyer of her building, the primary investor in her app, and to no surprise, subsequently his lover. The beginning is as much a let-down as the writing. The nearly two-hour film doesn’t seem to be able to get away from time-tested clichés. Examples include an innocent girl being pitted against an angry mother, an absent father and a crushing debt that pushes her to meet a billionaire. Even the solution is fairly familiar, making it a hodge-podge of productions like The Devil Wears Prada (2006) and the Netflix original series, The Bold Type (2017-2021).
The film, which shows Merve transforming into a fashion influencer with her unique style, had the potential to offer an insight into the minds of Gen-Z, but despite the focus on two separate lives—the digital and real—her story doesn’t hit emotional highs. It feels more like we are doom-scrolling through someone’s social media chatter rather than flipping through the pages of their diary.
As the movie comes to a close, we once again see the camera moving, this time away from Merve, as she becomes a speck in the crowd, leaving us with a few questions. Did we learn about Merve? Sure. Was it engaging? Not necessarily. Does it make us want to know about more Merves in big cities? I didn’t think so... but well, you do you.
Film: You Do You
Director: Cemal Alpan
Genre: Romantic comedy
Platform: Netflix
Language: Turkish
Rating: 2.5 out of 5 stars