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Theaters are closed, movies delayed, and access to press screenings are limited to streaming. There’s no better time to highlight smaller films — amazing movies without the big-studio marketing budget that makes it harder for you to find. Discover a new film festival darling and support new, emerging, and independent filmmakers. Sheltering in place doesn’t need to stop you from your weekend evening escape to the movies. Follow the flurry of upcoming reviews on Twitter, or find all my reviews for movies you can stream from right at home.
For years, Netflix has been cornering a temporarily forgotten market: the teen romance movie. Their catalogue has been filled with them in recent years, from the middling successes of Tall and Sierra Burgess Is a Loser, to the big success of instant classic To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before and its sequel PS I Still Love You. The Half of It is Netflix’s newest teen romcom movie in the same tradition; one that continues its legacy of capturing the charm and emotional pull of the teen romance while subverting its more antiquated clichés and heteronormativity.
A love story centered around academic star and witty outcast Ellie Chu (Leah Lewis), The Half of It offers both a common protagonist trope with a twist: sure, Ellie is a nerdy outcast, but she’s also confident in her own way, less interested in the popularity game of high school and more invested in taking other students’ money by writing their English papers. Her personal struggle is primarily paying the bills with her father, a Chinese immigrant whose PhD is undermined by his inability to speak perfect English. When Ellie meets Paul, a charming-dumb type with a heart of gold, he asks Ellie to write a love letter for the girl he’s fallen for. Ellie never expected to fall for that same girl through her letters, launching an often hilarious, often touching love triangle in small-town Squahamish between the poetic nerd, charming-dumb jock, and the perfect girl.
Part of The Half of It is a familiar catfishing plot reminiscent of Sierra Burgess and countless others, but less cringy in its deception. You feel more comfortable rooting for Ellie’s deception given the likelihood of the perfect girl, Aster, having the same struggles with her sexuality and secretly wanting to be with Ellie as well. While their feelings stay hidden, the second act of the film makes for a spy thriller-comedy of a love story, with Ellie speaking through Paul, a character who reliably blunders Ellie’s wit and sensitivity. When Ellie and Aster communicate through letters and texts though, sparks fly, along with an undeniably beautiful emotional connection.
Despite being a romance that isn’t meant to have a happy ending — Ellie’s narration offers you that warning when the movie begins. There’s an unbridled hope that threads through every scene and character. Not necessarily based on the question of will-they-or-won’t-they-be-together, but hope for Ellie and Aster to come to terms with their feelings, that Paul will become a star chef and his friendship with Ellie will develop, that Ellie’s father will be alright. Where Paul seems impossibly uncharismatic in the first act, and Aster too conceited to fully appreciate, both will grow on you as a testament to writer and director Alice Wu’s work. You may scoff at the undercurrent of pretentious commentary on love and philosophy (at least I did) until I realized how effective it was in putting me in the heart space of teenage love — the same heart space that’s so ineffable to Paul that he needs Ellie to describe.
An underdeveloped character or two weakens the movie, like Trig, Aster’s boyfriend who plays an additional dumb jock and pride of the town. His relationship with Aster is meant to complicate her feelings as to whether she wants to submit to the manicured life offered to her, or boldly pursue the riskier life she truly wants. Their relationship feels more a distraction than an asset, not worth the handful of laughs offered by Trig’s cute doofiness. Eventually he leads to the least effective part of the film when a climactic scene in a church goes off the rails and crashes.
Still, there’s more than enough depth and plot progression to make it easy to sweep the unnecessary parts aside and focus on what matters. By its end you may find yourself cheering for friendships more that lovers, not needing a happily-ever-after to feel that love won the day. For me, there’s few more heartwarming scenes than Ellie and her dad eating something called a “taco sausage,” with Paul standing between them, smiling. I could have settled simply for that.
The Half of It is available for streaming on Netflix May 1st.
Find all of Jordan Calhoun’s Rotten Tomatoes-approved movie reviews at Jordan Calhoun at the Movies.
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The post Here for “The Half of It” appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.
Theaters are closed, movies delayed, and access to press screenings are limited to streaming. There’s no better time to highlight smaller films — amazing movies without the big-studio marketing budget that makes it harder for you to find. Discover a new film festival darling and support new, emerging, and independent filmmakers. Sheltering in place doesn’t need to stop you from your weekend evening escape to the movies. Follow the flurry of upcoming reviews on Twitter, or find all my reviews for movies you can stream from right at home.
For years, Netflix has been cornering a temporarily forgotten market: the teen romance movie. Their catalogue has been filled with them in recent years, from the middling successes of Tall and Sierra Burgess Is a Loser, to the big success of instant classic To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before and its sequel PS I Still Love You. The Half of It is Netflix’s newest teen romcom movie in the same tradition; one that continues its legacy of capturing the charm and emotional pull of the teen romance while subverting its more antiquated clichés and heteronormativity.
A love story centered around academic star and witty outcast Ellie Chu (Leah Lewis), The Half of It offers both a common protagonist trope with a twist: sure, Ellie is a nerdy outcast, but she’s also confident in her own way, less interested in the popularity game of high school and more invested in taking other students’ money by writing their English papers. Her personal struggle is primarily paying the bills with her father, a Chinese immigrant whose PhD is undermined by his inability to speak perfect English. When Ellie meets Paul, a charming-dumb type with a heart of gold, he asks Ellie to write a love letter for the girl he’s fallen for. Ellie never expected to fall for that same girl through her letters, launching an often hilarious, often touching love triangle in small-town Squahamish between the poetic nerd, charming-dumb jock, and the perfect girl.
Part of The Half of It is a familiar catfishing plot reminiscent of Sierra Burgess and countless others, but less cringy in its deception. You feel more comfortable rooting for Ellie’s deception given the likelihood of the perfect girl, Aster, having the same struggles with her sexuality and secretly wanting to be with Ellie as well. While their feelings stay hidden, the second act of the film makes for a spy thriller-comedy of a love story, with Ellie speaking through Paul, a character who reliably blunders Ellie’s wit and sensitivity. When Ellie and Aster communicate through letters and texts though, sparks fly, along with an undeniably beautiful emotional connection.
Despite being a romance that isn’t meant to have a happy ending — Ellie’s narration offers you that warning when the movie begins. There’s an unbridled hope that threads through every scene and character. Not necessarily based on the question of will-they-or-won’t-they-be-together, but hope for Ellie and Aster to come to terms with their feelings, that Paul will become a star chef and his friendship with Ellie will develop, that Ellie’s father will be alright. Where Paul seems impossibly uncharismatic in the first act, and Aster too conceited to fully appreciate, both will grow on you as a testament to writer and director Alice Wu’s work. You may scoff at the undercurrent of pretentious commentary on love and philosophy (at least I did) until I realized how effective it was in putting me in the heart space of teenage love — the same heart space that’s so ineffable to Paul that he needs Ellie to describe.
An underdeveloped character or two weakens the movie, like Trig, Aster’s boyfriend who plays an additional dumb jock and pride of the town. His relationship with Aster is meant to complicate her feelings as to whether she wants to submit to the manicured life offered to her, or boldly pursue the riskier life she truly wants. Their relationship feels more a distraction than an asset, not worth the handful of laughs offered by Trig’s cute doofiness. Eventually he leads to the least effective part of the film when a climactic scene in a church goes off the rails and crashes.
Still, there’s more than enough depth and plot progression to make it easy to sweep the unnecessary parts aside and focus on what matters. By its end you may find yourself cheering for friendships more that lovers, not needing a happily-ever-after to feel that love won the day. For me, there’s few more heartwarming scenes than Ellie and her dad eating something called a “taco sausage,” with Paul standing between them, smiling. I could have settled simply for that.
The Half of It is available for streaming on Netflix May 1st.
Find all of Jordan Calhoun’s Rotten Tomatoes-approved movie reviews at Jordan Calhoun at the Movies.
Want to get Black Nerd Problems updates sent directly to you? Sign up here!
Follow us on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram!
The post Here for “The Half of It” appeared first on Black Nerd Problems.
Your kids have always dreamed about going off to Hogwarts. And it’s probably not a stretch to say that you might be dreaming of sending them there right now just so they’d have something to do. A Youth Services Librarian and Harry Potter fan is making both of your wishes come true… sort of. Created by Sydney Krawiec, Youth Services Librarian at Peters Township Public Library in Pennsylvania, the Hogwarts Digital Escape Room gives you and your kids a chance to, well, escape from real life and into the world of Harry Potter.
(Don’t tell the kids, but they’ll be learning real world lessons along the way.)
Warner Bros.
The adventure begins on the first night at Hogwarts after the great feast to celebrate the start of a new school year. As sorted students shuffle off to their House common rooms for the evening, the prefects announce a game inspired by one of the Muggles’ newest fads: escape rooms. Can the students escape to make their way out and get back to the safety of the common room?
Clues are given and students must answer questions and riddles to proceed. There’s no Harry Potter book or movie trivia to be found here. Instead, we have questions about the Dewey Decimal System (be still our beating nerd hearts), math to convert galleons to knuts, and more puzzles that must be solved correctly before the next part of the escape room opens.
Warner Bros.
The digital escape room is all presented brilliantly through a Google Form, offering multiple choices to give your answers. While the experience is clearly written with the love for children’s education that a Youth Librarian has, this digital escape room is an excellent way to get happily lost in the halls of Hogwarts for just a little while.
Featured Image: Warner Bros.
Kelly Knox is a freelance writer in Seattle, WA who writes for Star Wars, DC Comics, and more. Follow her on Twitter.
The post Head to Hogwarts with HARRY POTTER Digital Escape Room appeared first on Nerdist.
Source: JD/WENN.com / WENN
While out shopping for essential items yesterday (May 2), actress Debbi Morgan was compelled to go on social media and share her concern for how African-American communities are impacted by COVID-19. In a video she posted to Instagram, she tearfully described how hard blacks have been hit financially and health wise since the pandemic began.
“This is my first day [out] in about 12 days…,” she said. “I don’t know, for some reason I just feel overcome with such emotion. I just want all of us to get through this, to the other side, especially within our black communities. People are sick and dying, so many of us are dying. And we can’t put food on the table for our children. We can’t pay our rent, we can’t pay our mortgages.”
To those feeling defeated, she also offered words of encouragement to instill hope during such a devastating time.
“Our ancestors are strong people, and we got through slavery. We are still a strong people, we will get through this. But we gotta be smart and stay safe. Because we cannot and will not be broken.”
It has been shown that African-Americans have been disproportionately affected by the deadly virus and have not had access to testing sites in the same way that white, wealthier communities have. For example, in Chicago black people make up 29 percent of the population but account for 70 percent of coronavirus deaths in the city. In Louisiana, 33 percent of the population black but 70 percent of the deaths due to COVID-19 were black. Blacks constitute 14 percent of New Jersey’s population but 20 percent of those who died from COVID-19 are black.
One of the reasons why blacks have been dying at higher rates is because of underlying illnesses, according to experts. Sherita Golden, M.D., M.H.S., a specialist in endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism and chief diversity officer at Johns Hopkins Medicine, reported that black people have a “higher burden of chronic health conditions associated with a poor outcome from COVID-19, including diabetes, heart disease and lung disease.” Dr. Golden also pointed out that inconsistent access to health care, living in crowded homes, working in essential fields and stress puts people of color at a higher risk.
Watch Morgan’s video below.