One Half It Review: A smart, queer teen spin on Koreano de Bergerac

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One Half It Review: A smart, queer teen spin on Koreano de Bergerac

Bergerac, Koreano, Queer, Review, Smart, spin, teen


The first movies on Netflix have generally floated three very different shows. There is one obvious play – Bong Joon-ho & # 39; s Okja, By Martin Scorsese An Irishman, the Coen brothers & # 39; Ballad of Buster Scruggs, and so on. Then there are the real ones that sound like live or Hallmark movies, like The Knight Before Christmas either Recognition of Privacy. And then there are genre games, like I am a mother and It's bright. So, it's a surprise that the latest movie hits the platform, by Alice Wu Half of It, is not easily distinguished as the idea of ​​a youth version of Koreano de Bergerac It looks lovely in the pure fluff of love, but Wu compares it to the depth and wonder of imagination. This is not a film focused solely on fogs – Wu bows to the high ground of living in a small, vibrant city, the challenges of moving to a new country and the process of just growing up.

Ellie Chu (Leah Lewis) runs a small business writing posters for her high school classmates, and she tolerates racism (“Chugga-chugga-Chu-chu!”) When she returns by bicycle from school. His father (Collin Chou), who emigrated from China promising more opportunities abroad, works as a crowd of train stations. He has a PhD in engineering, but it is of little use to the city that he does not see more than his degree. Although Ellie's teacher, Mrs. Geselschap (Becky Ann Baker), knows who after all the news she is reading, she urges Ellie to apply for college through her (fictional) town of Squahamish, Washington. But Ellie doesn't mind leaving her dad behind. His situation begins to change when he receives a different kind of commission: Paul (Diel Diemer), one of the school's jockeys, wants his help write to Aster (Alexxis Lemire) for help. Holding: Ellie holding Aster, in distress.

Leah Lewis and Collin Chou in Half of It.
Photo: KC Bailey / Netflix

It sounds crazy to say that teenage romance is successful by undermining the common youth legislative index, but what makes it Half of It more than just a remake of Edmond Rostand's 1897 play (or revised movie re-imagining, it's like Roxanne either The Truth About Dogs and Dogs) is its cultivation of its seeds, rather than its refreshing. If the audience does not invest in the experiences of Paul or Aster, the story becomes one-sided. But because Wu, who wrote this script, takes the time to get all three players out of the triangle, the love affair becomes more complicated than the question of whether Ellie and Aster will finally meet.

What is most impressive is that the details that make these characters feel real are: details, rather than casual. Aster's beauty makes him well-liked in school, but he is also expected to be as much a cheerleader hen as other popular schoolgirls. Ellie is often referred to as a "Chinese girl" wherever she goes, and she is so used to it that she is not against it. Half of It You don't have to be a "big-headed" movie to comment on racism, or to restrict certain personalities, especially those of young women, because of outdated and patriarchal norms.

But Wu looks at the small aspects of each character, depending on how they write. Paul uses emojis with abandon, but Ellie and Aster are both careful with their capitalism and punctuation. As the audience begins to get acquainted with these characters, the characters are able to get to know each other, which makes the unmistakable revelation of the truth more subtle and defensible than pure cuts.

Leah Lewis and Alexxis Lemire at Half of It.
Photo: KC Bailey / Netflix

Lewis, Deimer, and Lemire performed with the amazing trio. Unlike, say, new in Glee, they still look young enough that their feelings of going around feel so real, not started. Paul may be a sad person – literally and descriptively, as his family is in the sausage business – but he is a lovely person too, and his great friendship with Ellie and her father is one of the highlight of the movie. She wants to entertain the kid, or she does her best to show off Ellie's dad's recipes.

And Lewis makes it clear that Ellie's out-of-town situation has less to do with her personality than how the rest of the white city goes about seeing her. His first big party at the high school, attended a lecture invited by Paul, sees some students immediately talking to him and inviting him to play games, even though he doesn't do anything differently. Ellie's behavior doesn't really change as her friendship with Paul introduces her to more social circles. Instead, people around him overcome their ideas of him.

As Ellie said in the opening scene of the film, this is not news when everyone gets what they want. Half of Itit includes romance, but it's more of a teen drama than a rom-com, focusing on the coming story of aliens in which the couple is one of the aspects of the experience. With Half of It, Wu has invented a love story that embodies love in all senses, not only romantic, prioritizing not only who kisses whom, but what each character hopes and dreams of. They saw exactly what to watch Half of It it sounds like the beginning of a new relationship. It's exciting, enticing, and full of hope for the next one – in this case, to see something that Wu has in his guide.

Half of It streaming on Netflix now.


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