I'm not obese by any stretch of the imagination. I'm actually really skinny on some areas of my body, but I do have a bit of a belly, and it has always been a source of frustration of self-loathing on my part. I want in gone obviously but my various attempts of exercising and cutting out crap always end in failure, and that obviously makes me feel loads worse.

The best pieces of art make you rethink something entirely, and that's what Your Fat Friend has done for me. The film's message isn't that being fat is the best or that things that exercising and dieting are bad. What it IS saying however is that doing these things from a…

Aubrey is an absolutely delightful subject to spend 90 minutes with — she is thoughtful, funny, incredibly smart & willing to be quite vulnerable in front of the camera. The film itself meanders a bit; there are individual moments that are quite compelling (verite of a tense dinner table conversation made me squirm in my seat, the beauty shots of Aubrey in the pool and under the tree were stunning, and the scene at her book launch where her dad leans over to tell a stranger “that’s my daughter” instantly made me cry) but I couldn’t quite identify what the film was trying to be. Are we following one fat activist as a way into the fat liberation movement more broadly?…

This kinda feels like three or four documentaries in one, and it’s all solid but does feel a bit unfocused.

It’s partly a direct adaptation of Aubrey’s work, both her early anonymous blogs and her more recent books and podcasts. That aspect didn’t do much for me, but that may just be because that material is all very familiar to me. I can imagine it being quite effective if it’s new to you.

It’s also a visual memoir of sorts, covering Aubrey’s life from 2016 to almost the present day. The intimacy with which we see various milestones and big moments caught me off guard. It’s often quite moving.

It’s also a polemic against the wellness industry, diet culture, and…

When did you stop swimming?

For me, it was right as puberty chimed. There was no way I was appearing in a skintight outfit - I already knew I was fat (had that appended to my identity when I was five or so), so why on earth would I expose myself? Being fat in the world, to badly paraphrase Aubrey Gordon, is about trying to make yourself fit better.

This documentary, which is so much better than I expected it to be, follows Gordon from anon writer to her moderate-sized celebrity as beloved podcast host/laugher. I'm a Gordon fan, I would've been happy with a standard-issue indie doc creation, but this is very well crafted. It grapples with internet infamy…