The Half of It (2020)

May 1, 2020 5:40 PM

When smart but cash-strapped teen Ellie Chu agrees to write a love letter for a jock, she doesn't expect to become his friend - or fall for his crush. (Netflix)

*Variety Review - There’s a lovely friendship at the center of Alice Wu's sweet, sincere high school Cyrano story, revealing what we've been missing from teen movies.

*Slashfilm - ‘The Half of It’ is Director Alice Wu’s Ode to Platonic Soulmates [Interview]

*Deadline - The Half Of It’ Director Alice Wu Talks Returning To Filmmaking, Closeted Progressives And Showing Audiences A Different Kind Of Romance

*Hollywood Reporter review - Smart, charming and endlessly refreshing

*Collider Review: Alice Wu’s Netflix Movie Isn’t Your Typical Love Story

*Collider - Netflix’s ‘The Half Of It’ Ending Explained: It’s Not about Who Gets the Girl

*Popsugar - Leah Lewis on How Family, Friends, and Twin Fire Souls Make The Half of It a "Coming-of-Life" Story

posted by oh yeah! (9 comments total)

Really loved this movie, it was a lot more nuanced than I'd gone into it expecting.

(Though, on a ridiculous note, I got completely pulled out of the movie in Ellie and Aster's last scene because I recognized the location -- they were right in front of The Turning Point in Piermont, NY, which really broke the 4th wall for me. Squahamish is supposed to be somewhere out in the boonies, and then they have to pick a shooting location I'm so familiar with to distract me out of a significant scene? Ha.)
posted by oh yeah! at 5:59 PM on May 1, 2020

Just watched it and yeah it was really good! So much longing but also hope. Between this and I Am Not Okay With This there seems to be a lot of young teen lesbians dealing with straight girl crushes plots happening. Which is great but also I want more endings where love is requited. Gay teens deserve happy romantic stories too.
posted by emjaybee at 10:09 PM on May 1, 2020

And we need more stories where straight teens (and adults) end with unrequited discomfort instead of happily-ever-after. Romantic books and movies teach kids all the wrong lessons. Everyone deserves some happy romantic stories, but frustrating romantic stories would inspire more resilience in the face of the constant rejection most people experience most of the time.
posted by rikschell at 7:26 AM on May 2, 2020 [4 favorites]

i loved the movie! And i think my heart grew impossibly tender when I read that the core friendship romance was Wu working out a happy-ever-after for her baby gay self and the guy friend she had.
posted by cendawanita at 7:08 PM on May 3, 2020 [2 favorites]

Alice Wu Breaks Down The Half Of It Opening Sequence (10-minute youtube)
posted by oh yeah! at 9:22 PM on May 6, 2020 [1 favorite]

ok, I'm sure I'm going to end up watching this movie at some point because it looks like my kinda rom com, but after the success of movies like Crazy Rich Asians and Always Be My Maybe, it's starting to grate on me that the last few successful teenage rom com with main characters of color have centered on a girl of color and a white boy. As an asian guy who have been told to his face that asian girls "just find white guys more attractive for some reason", I have to wonder what this type of presentation is doing to the next generation of asian teenagers.
posted by numaner at 2:41 PM on May 9, 2020

It was... OK. Even though they're actually the same age, I thought the actress for Aster looked significantly older than Ellie, which threw me off. Leah Lewis was great and I hope to see her in more things in the future.
posted by airmail at 11:03 PM on May 9, 2020

I really loved this. Ellie and Paul both felt like real kids, which was refreshing. Aster was a bit more movie-star-ish, but that kind of makes sense for the role.

Between this and I Am Not Okay With This there seems to be a lot of young teen lesbians dealing with straight girl crushes plots happening.

I did not at all take Aster as straight. Did you see the look on her face at the end of her last scene? (being vague so as not to be TOO spoilery)
posted by lunasol at 10:46 AM on May 26, 2020 [1 favorite]

This was a winner. It has a Smoke Signals (1998) feeling to it of rural life and loyalties in the Pacific Northwest, so at first I thought Ellie might be Native American or First Nations. And I appreciate how the story lines played out.
posted by TrishaU at 4:29 PM on June 1, 2020 [1 favorite]