Alright so over the weekend I finally got around to watching "The Half of It" on Netflix. Honestly I'm always skeptical when it comes to Netflix movies, I think that they very rarely are anything beyond a way for the platform to push out more and more content regardless of quality. This movie really isn't like that. It's a heart-warming movie about love, in all of its forms.
Having said that this is a movie about love, you're probably expecting a rom-com, maybe you know that it's also an LGBTQ+ film and think that it's a gay love story and that's why I'm into it. Nah. I dig this movie because it's primarily about the love between friends. Again, love in all of its forms. And the love within friendship is arguably the most important kind of love, and it just keeps getting overlooked time and time again. It's so nice to see it highlighted here.
Now the general plot of the film is Ellie (Chinese-American, gay) makes money writing essays for other students. Paul (football player) then hires her to write a love letter to Aster (popular girl). Of course, they're both crushing on the same girl, which complicates things. Hilarity ensues, involving Ellie finally making friends with Paul, the truth coming out, and everything getting incredibly messy before resolving.
The best part of the movie is how none of the characters end up being the trope you think they belong in. Paul is the dumb jock type, but he ends up looking after Ellie, taking her home after a party, trying so incredibly hard to get Aster to date him, and trying to get everyone to try his taco sausages. Aster seems like the airhead pretty girl, but in her letters to Paul/Ellie, reveals that she feels as though in being pretty she becomes everyone and also no one. She wants to go to art school, but also doesn't know if she's good enough. Ellie seems like the outcast nerd, but a really nice sequence of scenes shows how she changes throughout the film. While watching an old movie Ellie says that a character's a moron for chasing a train that the other is on. But by the end as she departs for college, she cries as Paul chases her train. She's learned that it's alright to be a moron for others.
Since I'm pretty similar to Ellie with the whole thinking-people-are-morons thing, I really liked watching her learn to make friends and be vulnerable. And it's not just Paul prying Ellie open, getting her to like others, Ellie also gets him to open up over the course of the letter writing.
Anyways, this isn't super well written, but I really enjoyed this movie, definitely a good call if you need something loving to watch in these trying times.
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