the half of it movie review

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The half of it.

Common Sense Says
Parents Say 10 Reviews
Kids Say 37 Reviews

Common Sense Media Review

Touching, smart teen story deals with sexuality; drinking.

Parents Need to Know

Why Age 13+?

Occasional cursing: "hell," "damn," "crap," "s--t." Peeing is mentioned.

Teens drink alcohol at a celebratory party. Main character drinks too much, vomi

Kisses between two teen girls and between a girl and a boy.

A slap, a hit, a fall from bike with no injury.

Yakult probiotic drink, Dr. Pepper.

Any Positive Content?

Thanks to a filmmaker, main character, and love interest who are all women, the

Explores complexities of relationships (friends, lovers, families) from a teen/y

Multilayered main character is wise, accomplished, responsible, and humble. She

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Teens drink alcohol at a celebratory party. Main character drinks too much, vomits, takes two aspirin the next morning.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Violence & Scariness

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Diverse representations.

Thanks to a filmmaker, main character, and love interest who are all women, the film definitely tells its story with a female perspective. Written and directed by Alice Wu (her first film since the groundbreaking Chinese American lesbian romance Saving Face in 2004), the movie has a queer Chinese American protagonist. Ellie lives with her immigrant father in a rural, majority-White town. Love interest Aster Flores is Latina; her religious family briefly speaks Spanish in the home, but their cultural identity is never specified. Rather than pin down Ellie and Aster -- who share romantic attraction -- as lesbian or bisexual, Wu gracefully avoids labels in favor of giving the film's young leads the space to sort through gender and sexuality for themselves.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Positive Messages

Explores complexities of relationships (friends, lovers, families) from a teen/young adult perspective with insightful results. Promotes honesty, empathy, respect for differences. Includes some conversation about God, beliefs, values.

Positive Role Models

Multilayered main character is wise, accomplished, responsible, and humble. She develops confidence, compassion, and joyfulness. To earn extra money (out of necessity, not greed), Ellie secretly writes school papers for other kids. Characters defy stereotypes: A dim "oaf" proves to be insightful and ambitious; a popular teen beauty has depth and artistic gifts. Adults (parents, teachers) are all responsible and caring.

Parents need to know that The Half of It is a teen romcom with wry humor and serious themes set in a small-town high school in the Pacific Northwest. It centers on Ellie Chu (Leah Lewis), a bright teen who writes a letter on behalf of a smitten but not very articulate boy to the girl of his dreams. Complicating matters is the fact that Ellie has her own crush on the same dream girl. Teen couples kiss, a potential relationship emerges, and conversations about sexuality take place. At a high school party with underage drinking, Ellie drinks too much and then vomits. The next morning, when she wakes up with a hangover, she takes two pills (presumed to be aspirin). Expect a bit of mild cursing like "crap," "damn," "s--t," and "hell." A teen falls from her bike, and someone is slapped. There's some talk about God, beliefs, and values, as well as positive cultural exchanges between White and Taiwanese characters. With its sly comedy and shrewd take on relevant issues, the movie should appeal to teens and their families. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Parent and Kid Reviews

Parents say (10)
Kids say (37)

Based on 10 parent reviews

Sweet, touching movie

Very good movie with common problematic sexual assault trope, what's the story.

Ellie Chu (Leah Lewis) is bright, perceptive, and pretty much on her own in THE HALF OF IT. Her small-town high school has its share of jocks, cool kids, nerds, and artsy types, but Ellie doesn't hang with any group. She feels isolated and responsible for her dad. A widowed Chinese immigrant with a Ph.D., Dr. Chu (Collin Chou) struggles to move on after his wife's death and is barely earning a living as a train switch operator. To earn extra money, Ellie secretly writes school papers for other kids. Enter Paul Munsky (Daniel Diemer). "Munsky" is aware of Ellie's writing enterprise and approaches her: He'll give her $50 if Ellie will write one letter in his name to Aster Flores (Alexxis Lemire), the popular girl he's in love with from afar. Reluctantly, Ellie agrees. What makes the prospect so hard, however, is that though she's never acknowledged it to others, Ellie is definitely attracted to Aster, too. Complications ensue and what begins as a one-time, money-making proposition becomes a poignant and funny adventure in growing up for Ellie, Paul, and Aster.

Is It Any Good?

Exploring friendship, love, and sexuality, as well as the hardships of feeling ostracized as a Chinese immigrant family living in a small, predominantly White community. This film is executed with integrity and heart and star Lewis never misses a beat. Her sincerity, comic timing, and seeming effortlessness in bringing Ellie Chu to life are a joy to watch. She's supported by an excellent cast. Writer-director Alice Wu has guided The Half of It players with a delicate touch. The movie is both laugh-out-loud funny and insightful. The few missteps -- an awkward climax in church that's not in keeping with the authenticity of the rest of the film and some geographically "convenient" moments -- don't detract from the impact of the movie's inherent glow. In the ever expanding list of Netflix romcoms for teens, this one rises to the top. Highly recommended.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about how The Half of It portrays teen drinking. Were you surprised that Ellie joined in? What were the consequences of her behavior? Why is it a good idea for families with older kids and teens to discuss drinking and substance abuse in movies ?

Labels are never used in describing the teen characters' relationships and attractions. How does this reflect a positive relationship with gender and sexuality? Can you think of ways in which labels might be helpful as young adults start to navigate love and romance?

The movie asks, "If love isn't the effort you put in, then what is it?" What do you think this means? Give some examples from your experience that might confirm the notion.

How did the small-town Washington State setting contribute to the story? In what ways did it define the characters and their expectations? What made the movie very "Northwest" in its look and feel?

Why are movies and books based on Cyrano de Bergerac so popular? Can you think of some other examples?

Movie Details

On DVD or streaming : May 1, 2020
Cast : Leah Lewis , Daniel Diemer , Alexxis Lemire
Director : Alice Wu
Inclusion Information : Female directors, Lesbian directors, Asian directors, Female actors, Latino actors
Studio : Netflix
Genre : Romance
Topics : Friendship , Great Girl Role Models , High School
Character Strengths : Communication , Courage , Empathy , Perseverance
Run time : 104 minutes
MPAA rating : PG-13
MPAA explanation : brief language and teen drinking
Award : Common Sense Selection
Last updated : February 18, 2023

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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What to watch next.

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‘the half of it’: film review.

'Saving Face' writer-director Alice Wu returns with another queer Asian American romance after a 15-year hiatus, this time on Netflix.

By Inkoo Kang

Television Critic

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The new film The Half of It (Netflix) feels like few other teen movies. Set in the rural, socially conservative town of Squahamish, Washington, it doesn’t show anyone shopping, or having sex, or using social media. Teenagers don’t gather at school dances, but at church. Squahamish isn’t Pleasantville; it’s not an artificially wholesome suburbia outside of time. It’s just another place where the adults don’t need to tell their children to not expect too much from life — they already know.

It’s debatable whether anyone even really falls in love. Our sensible protagonist Ellie Chu (Leah Lewis) says at the start of her tale, “This is not a love story — or not one where anyone gets what they want,” and she keeps her promise. By the end, what’s remarkable is how much things have changed for the characters, with so few grand gestures. In its relative lack of incidence — as refreshing as the dowdy main character’s getting to stay dowdy despite her only friend’s desire to give her a makeover — it captures the tremendous growth that happens during adolescence when it feels like nothing is happening at all.

Release date: May 01, 2020

Written and directed by Alice Wu in her first film since 2005’s Saving Face , The Half of It , which won best narrative feature honors at this year’s (virtual) Tribeca Film Festival, is a contemporary update on Cyrano de Bergerac. Bookish Ellie writes love letters on behalf of a classmate, Paul (Daniel Diemer), to a girl they both like. Paul has no inkling of Ellie’s queerness or their shared crush on Aster (Alexxis Lemire), so it’s not long before he wonders if it’s not the pretty and popular Aster who’s right for him, but helpful and smart Ellie.

Meanwhile, artsy Aster, who’s tired of vapid conversations with her dimwit boyfriend Trig (Wolfgang Novogratz) and the other fashionable girls, finds in her correspondence with Ellie-as-Paul a kindred spirit with whom she can finally discuss Kazuo Ishiguro novels and Katharine Hepburn movies.

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'The Half Of It' Review: There's More Than Meets The Eye With This Charming Teen LGBTQ Riff On 'Cyrano'

"This is not a love story." So The Half of It warns us early on, but it's easy to be lulled into complacency by the familiar tropes that Alice Wu 's teenage rom-com wields. A modern-day riff on Cyrano de Bergerac — the classic Edmond Rostand play that follows an intelligent man with an "ugly" nose who woos a woman through a more handsome suitor — The Half Of It presents itself as a cute LGBTQ twist on an age-old rom-com narrative: Guy asks girl to write a love letter to popular girl, girl falls in love with popular girl, everyone lives happily ever after. But unexpectedly, The Half Of It becomes something far deeper and more interesting.

There's a double meaning to the title The Half Of It — it of course refers to the commonly used phrase, which Leah Lewis ' bookish teen Ellie Chu utters at one point in the film — but it mostly has to do with the concept of soulmates. The Platonic myth of soulmates, to be specific, as depicted in the whimsical opening animated sequence of The Half Of It . Stick figures on flying scraps of paper split in half and are tragically separated as Ellie Chu narrates the myth depicted in Plato's "Symposium": every person was actually one half of a whole soul, split into two at inception and separated, fated to search their entire lives for their other halves. It's a romantic notion that the greatest poets and love sonnets have frequently referred to — how wonderful is the idea that someone exists out there who is made from the same cloth as you?

But Ellie Chu has no time for these kind of romantic notions. The lone Chinese teenager in the small, Christian town of Squahamish — the only other Chinese person is her dad, who has secluded himself in their house watching reruns of classic films, when he's not working at the town's lone, dinghy train station — Ellie supplements her father's meager income by selling essays to her classmates. It's a good, well-oiled system; Ellie writes four or five different essays for a class, and hands them out during band practice, as easily as notes were once passed in classrooms. Wu adds the nice touch of the students chuckling about the latest Instagram drama while passing Ellie's essays to each other, adding some dramatic energy that recalls the note-passing days of old. There is an old-fashioned feeling to The Half Of It , which presupposes that teens still write love letters to each other. But in the forgotten backwater town of Squahamish, which feels frozen in time to the indie teen dramedies of the '90s, the premise of this movie doesn't feel out of date.

Ellie Chu is the kind of girl who puts her head down and powers her way through life — through her dad's quiet shuffling that has become commonplace since her mother died, through her bike rides home from school as kids drive by and taunt her with yells of "Chugga Chu Chu!", through her teacher's ( Becky Ann Baker ) kind suggestions that she apply for college far away from here. Her head is so far down that she nearly doesn't notice when sweet, bumbling jock Paul Munsky ( Daniel Diemer ) runs up to her to ask if she'll write a love letter to the prettiest girl in school, Aster Flores ( Alexxis Lemire ). Perplexed by the request at first, Ellie is worn down by Paul's sweet, romantic, if a bit dumb, nature, and agrees. It helps that she too has a burgeoning crush on Aster — one of the few fellow minorities in their small town, and the only girl in school who also reads Walt Whitman for fun.

The rom-com conceit of this movie plays out differently than expected. As Ellie pens flowery love letters to Aster for Paul, who doesn't understand half of what she writes, The Half Of It takes on a contemplative rhythm, as the two girls ponder their own feelings of being outsiders in the tight-knit Christian town. It's a surprisingly slow-burning start for a teen romantic-comedy, especially one hailing from Netflix, which churns out cutesy rom-coms by the dozens. While The Half Of It does indulge in your typically fun teen shenanigans — it at one point transforms into a buddy comedy where Ellie pulls a Pygmalion on Paul to turn him into the intellectual that she's invented in her letters — The Half Of It isn't as interested in building up the romance between its characters. Instead, it lets you live with them in this grungy, working class town that they've known all their lives and fear that they'll be stuck in forever. It becomes clear that The Half Of It is less a rom-com than a coming-of-age story, as Ellie, Paul, and even Aster try to break out of the roles that have been set for them to play.

The Half Of It dwells on the idea of loneliness, in all its different forms. In some ways, you could say that it offers a bit of an easy fix for loneliness: connection with others. But that connection isn't necessarily romantic. The Half Of It is the rare rom-com that actually upholds the idea of platonic soulmates — feeling a kinship with someone that's so strong, and so powerful, it doesn't need to be romantic. Romance isn't the be-all-end-all of love, The Half Of It argues, and platonic love can be even stronger than romantic love.

The platonic love story between Ellie and Paul is the most refreshing part of this film. The two are mismatched and never attracted to each other — though Paul gets confused at several points — and yet their connection is the emotional crux of the film. While the film loses some momentum towards the end as it tries to tackle this rare narrative around platonic soulmates, Ellie and Paul's sweet, awkward relationship wherein he teaches her to soften up and she teaches him to expand his horizons, is lovely to behold.

The film toys with a lot of weighty ideas about faith and soulmates, which it never is quite able to form a coherent message about, but its unexpected ode to platonic soulmates and its thoughtful depiction of immigrant life in smalltown America is a sweet, refreshing addition to the coming-of-age genre.

/Film Rating: 8 out of 10

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The Half of It Reviews

The Half of It brilliantly capitalizes on the everlasting appeal of an easy-to-swallow romcom by disrupting the very same tropes it inevitably clings to, resulting in a film that feels comfortably familiar but still entirely fresh.

Full Review | Oct 3, 2022

That rare film in which words marry technology. It puts the text back in texting.

Full Review | Jul 20, 2022

Funny and charming and lovely and real.

Full Review | Sep 10, 2021

Narratively this doesn't reinvent the wheel with this umpteenth retelling of the Cyrano de Bergerac story, but this is also absolutely one of the strongest teen movies released in recent years.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Sep 1, 2021

The update gains substance when attraction comes from the duo's shared fascination with arts, culture, and expression. These new dynamics work cleverly, making for bright and insightful entertainment.

Full Review | Jul 19, 2021

The Half of It clips along beautifully, giving you all the sweet charm of your favorite rom-coms while also giving you some thoughtful meditation on what love is.

Full Review | Feb 21, 2021

The Half Of It is a likeable if not especially memorable entry into the teen romantic-comedy genre - but it gains most of its merit through its sensitive depiction of outsiderdom and self-acceptance.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Feb 20, 2021

The idea of a teenage version of Cyrano de Bergerac seems to lend itself to pure romantic fluff, but Wu imbues it with incredible depth and consideration.

Full Review | Feb 20, 2021

Netflix has slowly built up a nice library of coming of age rom-coms. The Half of It is mostly in the middle-tier of those, but Ellie is the kind of protagonist we don't see often enough.

It's a wistful charmer.

The Half of It has a lot going on, but it manages to keep all of it flowing in a coherent and fun manner. With a fantastic concept, it features more than a few surprises along the way, easily elevating it way above your typical high school movie.

Full Review | Feb 17, 2021

[It's] a fairly down-to-earth portrayal of high school, from the fashion to the clever inclusion of social media which defines the modern-day teenage experience.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Feb 1, 2021

The Half of It might feel tame in comparison, but it is just as genuine.

Full Review | Dec 30, 2020

This story has been done many times, yet it feels fresh and new in Wu's version, which is about a whole lot of things besides unrequited love.

Full Review | Original Score: 7/10 | Dec 18, 2020

Whether you were the jock, the nerd, or the popular kid, there's something in this movie that just might make you feel pretty darn seen.

Full Review | Sep 8, 2020

An honest story which contains a lot of topics beyond romance. It speaks of self-love, of growing up, accepting oneself, friendship and more. [Full Review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Aug 3, 2020

The Half of It is a much-needed, witty boost to the genre of romantic comedies, which have been struggling for years with mediocre and uninspired stories.

Full Review | Jul 18, 2020

An intelligent and intimate movie that captures the feelings of longing for the first love. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Jul 10, 2020

The Half of It, new today, seems like something of a remedy to that - an undeniably but not tokenistically progressive affair from writer-director Alice Wu about a queer love triangle in the small, simple town of Squahamish.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/5 | Jun 26, 2020

A warm hearted, funny and really well-crafted movie about two girls, one boy, love letters and the art of romantic texting.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jun 12, 2020

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The Half of It Is an Absolutely Perfect High School Rom-com

Do you ever watch a movie and find that it just checks all of your boxes? It doesn’t happen very often, and when it does, the moment stays with you forever. For me, this happened the first time I watched a paint-splattered Heath Ledger kiss Julia Stiles in 10 Things I Hate About You , and later at the moment when Meryl Streep ethers Anne Hathaway over cerulean blue in The Devil Wears Prada . They’re the scenes that turn a film into your comfort food, into a lifelong companion. You revisit them when you move to a new town, or break up with someone, or spend a lonely night in a hotel.

I had another moment like this a few weeks back, when I first watched The Half of It , out now on Netflix. The film tells the story of Ellie Chu (Leah Lewis), a quiet, scrappy teenager who helps her single dad pay the bills by ghostwriting essays for her peers. One day, her services are solicited by Paul (Daniel Diemer), a bumbling jock with a crush on popular girl Aster (Alexxis Lemire). Ellie is also into Aster, and in spite of this (or perhaps because of it), she agrees to pen love letters to her on Paul’s behalf. Paul and Ellie soon become unlikely friends: He cooks for her and defends her from racist bullies, and she drills him in art and philosophy. All the while, Ellie continues to fall even harder for Aster, as Aster does, unknowingly, for Ellie.

You might recognize the plot as a version of Cyrano de Bergerac , refashioned as a queer, YA love story. And while director Alice Wu imbued the film with all the sweetness of a standard coming-of-age rom-com, she also wove in commentary on race, class, religion, and gender in a way that is rarely seen in the genre. The film’s setting was a deliberate part of this: Rather than the manicured California suburbs of so many teen dramadies, The Half of It takes place in the fictional rural town of Squahamish, Washington, which Wu portrays as an ultraconservative area; people engage in casual racism, there’s a clear class divide, and pretty much everyone goes to church. Ellie’s relationships — her friendship with Paul, and love for Aster — feel even more uncertain, and ultimately more poignant, as they unfold against this backdrop.

The Half of It just won Best Narrative Feature at the postponed Tribeca Film Festival, and it seems that critics agree that Wu has made something enduring. As for me, I won’t be forgetting a scene between Paul and Ellie’s dad, Mr. Chu (Collin Chou): Paul, an aspiring chef, brings him the ingredients to braised pork sausage, Ellie’s favorite dish. Mr. Chu, wordlessly, begins making it, and Paul copies him, forehead creased in concentration.

The scene is simple and silent, but it was the moment I knew I’d be carrying The Half of It in my bag of beloved films forever. And I’m certain, after watching, it will join yours, too.

The Half of It is out on Netflix today, May 1.

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Netflix’s queer romance The Half of It is a smart, funny joy

Alice Wu’s new film takes pleasure in the details

by Karen Han

a young woman and a young man look at a phone

The original movies on Netflix have generally skewed in three vastly different directions. There are the obvious prestige plays — Bong Joon-ho’s Okja , Martin Scorsese’s The Irishman , the Coen brothers’ The Ballad of Buster Scruggs , and so forth. Then there are the originals that feel like Lifetime or Hallmark movies, like The Knight Before Christmas or Secret Obsession . And then there are the genre plays, like I Am Mother and Bright . So it comes as a pleasant surprise that the latest movie to hit the platform, Alice Wu’s The Half of It , isn’t so easily categorized. The idea of a teenage version of Cyrano de Bergerac seems to lend itself to pure romantic fluff, but Wu imbues it with incredible depth and consideration. This isn’t a film that’s solely concerned with crushes — Wu folds in the highs and lows of living in a small, conservative town, the challenges of immigrating to a new country, and the thorny process of just growing up.

Ellie Chu (Leah Lewis) runs a small business writing her high-school classmates’ essays for them, and endures racist taunts (“Chugga-chugga-Chu-chu!”) on her bike ride to and from school. Her father (Collin Chou), who immigrated from China for the promise of more opportunities abroad, works as a train-station master. He has a PhD in engineering, but it’s meaningless in a town that doesn’t see him as more than his accent. Though Ellie’s teacher, Mrs. Geselschap (Becky Ann Baker), knows who’s behind all the essays she’s reading, she encourages Ellie to apply to colleges beyond their (fictional) town of Squahamish, Washington. But Ellie can’t imagine leaving her father behind. Her status quo starts to change when she receives a different kind of commission: Paul (Daniel Diemer), one of the school jocks, wants her help writing love letters to Aster (Alexxis Lemire). The catch: Ellie is harboring a crush on Aster, too.

It feels sacrilegious to say that a teen romance succeeds by dialing down the usual teen-drama horniness, but what makes The Half of It more than just a retread of Edmond Rostand’s 1897 play (or the updated movie re-imaginings, like Roxanne or The Truth About Cats & Dogs ) is its investment in its characters, rather than its kissing. If the audience has no investment in Paul or Aster’s experiences, the story becomes one-dimensional. But because Wu, who also penned the script, takes the time to flesh out all three players in the triangle, the romance story becomes more complicated than the question of whether Ellie and Aster will finally get together.

What’s more impressive is that the details that make these characters feel so real are just that: details, rather than extraordinary. Aster’s beauty makes her well-liked at school, but she’s also expected to fit the cheerleader mold like the school’s other popular girls. Ellie is often referred to as “the Chinese girl” wherever she goes, and is so used to it that she doesn’t resist. The Half of It doesn’t have to be a “big theme” movie to comment on casual racism, or stifling individuality, particularly that of young women, in favor of outdated and patriarchal norms.

But Wu also pays attention to the smaller aspects of each character, down to how they text. Paul uses emojis with abandon, but Ellie and Aster are both careful about their capitalization and punctuation. As audiences get to know these characters’ quirks, the characters also get to know each other, making the inevitable reveal of the truth messy and protracted instead of cleanly cut.

Lewis, Deimer, and Lemire also make a wonderful trio. Unlike, say, the teens in Glee , they still look young enough that their gawkiness around each other feels genuine, not contrived. Paul may be a meathead — literally and metaphorically, as his family is in the sausage business — but he’s a sweetheart, too, and his burgeoning friendship with Ellie and her father is one of the movie’s highlights. He’s as eager-to-please as a puppy, even doing his best to mirror Ellie’s father’s cooking techniques.

And Lewis makes it clear that Ellie’s outsider status in town has less to do with her personality than the way the rest of her overwhelmingly white town sees her. Her first big high-school party, which she attends thanks to an invite from Paul, sees other students immediately talking to her and inviting her to play games, even though she’s not doing anything noticeably different. Ellie’s demeanor doesn’t really change as her friendship with Paul introduces her to more social circles. Instead, the people around her are overcoming their notions about her.

As Ellie states in the film’s opening moments, this isn’t a story where everyone gets what they want. The Half of It features romance, but it’s more of a teen drama than a rom-com, focusing on a coming-of-age immigrant story where romance is one facet of the experience. With The Half of It , Wu has crafted a love story that tackles love in all senses, not just romantic, prioritizing not just who gets to kiss who, but what each character hopes and dreams for. They’re so well-realized that watching The Half of It feels like the beginning of a new relationship. It’s exciting, enticing, and filled with hope for what comes next — in this case, seeing what else Wu has up her directorial sleeve.

The Half of It is streaming on Netflix now.

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The Half Of It Review

01 May 2020

The Half Of It

Early on in her voiceover for teen romcom The Half Of It , high-schooler Ellie Chu (Leah Lewis) informs us that this is not going to be a love story. In the strictest sense, she’s right: nobody ends up getting what or who they want in the traditional sense, but an awful lot of growing happens in the meantime.

In Alice Wu’s first film for 16 years (after Saving Face ), Ellie, who comes from a quiet Chinese-American immigrant family, tries to keep her head down in her small, rural town of Squahamish. She’s a nerdy, straight-A student who writes English essays for the less cerebrally gifted in her class in exchange for spare cash, and in her downtime enjoys existentialism and Katharine Hepburn movies. In contrast to the typical small-town fixtures of rowdy blue-collar white folks and their jock kids, she is undoubtedly out of place; this is made all the more apparent in her looks of quiet longing at popular girl Aster (Alexxis Lemire), who seems to feel equally alienated — just better at disguising it.

An affable film with its heart in the right place.

Using the framework of the classic Cyrano De Bergerac story, Ellie winds up being talked into writing love letters to Aster for an inarticulate but earnest jock named Paul (Daniel Diemer), and finds two things to be true: she is increasingly falling for Aster by proxy, and that Paul, moron though he initially seems, is actually a genuine friend. The premise is charming enough, particularly in the latter section of the film when Aster and Ellie are finally honest with one another, and in some quietly touching, unspoken moments between Ellie and her kind, watchful father (Collin Chou), as they eat and enjoy films together.

Wu’s depiction of otherness and acceptance in rural American life — where immigration and queerness are often still faced with deep bigotry — is never blunt but tacitly lingers on the periphery of the story, informing everything that goes on. It’s one of the strong points of The Half Of It . But the film also suffers a little from its depictions of teenage life and lust as so po-faced. There aren’t many jokes that land, making it seem like a rather solemn affair throughout, and you do wonder how many teenagers will see themselves in the film’s odd depiction of social media (nearly non-existent, or inaccurately portrayed), or the stilted way they interact with each other.

Still, even if its lack of liveliness is an issue, the performances are strong, particularly Leah Lewis as Ellie, with her perennially tousled hair and disaffected stare, and Daniel Diemer as the dopey but loveable Paul. The Half Of It is flawed, but it’s an affable film with its heart in the right place.

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You’ll Want to Give a Hug to Netflix’s The Half of It

The romantic comedy was never really supposed to be original. The genre has a few simple narrative templates, many of them several centuries old. Cinematically speaking, artistry and charm are found, instead, in elements like atmosphere, style, wit, or chemistry. And, of course, the honesty with which a film handles that central force of all human existence: desire. Alice Wu’s The Half of It is a fine example of all this. It’s yet another riff on Edmond Rostand’s Cyrano de Bergerac , one of the most overused comic-romantic prototypes of all time, but it’s so tenderhearted and transporting, its characters so likable, that you can’t help but want to give the movie and everyone in it a big hug.

The story takes place in a Pacific Northwestern town called Squahamish (pronounced like you might say “squeamish” while a sneeze is coming on) and follows one Ellie Chu (Leah Lewis), a Chinese-American straight-A student who’s developed a small cottage industry writing her not terribly bright classmates’ essays for them. Ellie is so much smarter than everyone else that her English teacher is well aware of the girl’s side gig; the teacher just allows it because the alternative, reading these dopes’ actual essays, would be so much worse.

One day, Ellie is approached by Paul Munsky (Daniel Diemer), a kind, dim, and lupine-featured football player whose family’s sausage shop is next door to the station house where she and her father (Collin Chou) live. Paul wants Ellie to write a letter, in his name of course, to Aster Flores (Alexxis Lemire), the most beautiful girl in school. Ellie, who is herself secretly attracted to Aster, reluctantly pens a message in which she lifts a line from Wim Wenders’s Wings of Desire . When Aster immediately gets the reference, Ellie becomes more committed to the endeavor: Here’s a girl whose frustration with the unexamined life in this backwater seems to match her own. (Never mind that the backwater is actually shot rather beautifully. Wu, whose previous film Saving Face , made an infuriating 15 years ago , immersed us in the Chinese-American community of Flushing, New York, has a real gift for bringing a setting to life.)

And so, Ellie and Aster — under the ridiculous premise that the comically inarticulate Paul is somehow writing these words — enter into an elaborate exchange that references great authors, history, art theory, and the inchoate need to escape their current reality. The movie actually breezes through these early Rostandian plot points, so much so that you might wonder if we’re being set up for some sort of eventual twist that will send things in a more shocking direction. That twist doesn’t come, but the story does eventually enter more interesting territory: Paul, whom we were initially led to believe was just an ignorant dolt, proves himself a stand-up dude, and some of his dumb ideas — such as a “sausage taco” — even turn out to be somewhat inspired. As he and Ellie work harder and harder to woo Aster, the more Paul himself starts to fall for his partner in romantic crime, unaware that she’s queer. Through Paul, Ellie starts to come out of her shell. And Aster, who seems practically betrothed to another, even dumber football player, starts to wonder about her own future.

We get so involved in the airy perfection of this correspondence and all that it opens up that the duplicity slips away and the human connection becomes downright metaphysical, a precocious teen’s dream of a better world. As filmed by Wu, the screen lights up with ornate words, pictures, and text messages, all of it contributing to a kind of dream life, one where these people’s words help transcend their mundane, dead-end milieu. In one late scene, two characters float in a pool of water, listening to music and talking of loneliness, God, and the future; their shimmering reflections hint at an alternate reality where things are less confusing, where hopes are realized. In most good rom-coms you fall in love with the characters; in The Half of It you fall in love with their sheer longing.

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Netflix’s The Half of It was the queer teen rom-com of my dreams — until it wasn’t

The new movie features a winning lead performance, beautiful direction, and a messy script.

by Emily St. James

Ellie and Paul strategize on how to win Astrid’s heart.

Every week, new original films debut on Netflix, Hulu, and other digital services, often films with modest budgets and limited fanfare. Cinemastream is Vox’s series highlighting the most notable of these premieres, in an ongoing effort to keep interesting and easily accessible new films on your radar.

The Half of It

The premise: Ellie ghostwrites papers and essays for the kids in her high school for a low, low fee. But when she’s conscripted by local meathead goofball Paul to write him love letters to Aster, one of the prettiest girls in school, Ellie doesn’t dare admit to anyone she has feelings for Aster, too. It’s Cyrano de Bergerac for queer girls, basically.

What it’s about: For roughly its first two-thirds, Netflix’s The Half of It was the teen rom-com of my dreams. Leah Lewis and Daniel Diemer have terrific best friend chemistry as Ellie and Paul; director Alice Wu (making her first film since 2005’s Saving Face ) made the movie’s rural Washington setting look especially picturesque; and Ellie slowly realizing that she has actual romantic feelings for Aster was handled very sweetly. As a woman married to another woman who comes from a town very similar to Ellie’s, it was the kind of story I wish I could have seen at 15.

Then the end of the movie arrives, and everything falls apart in incredibly disappointing fashion. The many storylines Wu was juggling with only a few bobbles to that point start to collide into each other, and she drops more than a few. The missed landing is the difference between this being the next To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before- size hit for Netflix and it being just another Netflix movie that sinks without much of a cultural ripple.

There are plenty of reasons to watch The Half of It nevertheless, starting with Lewis, who’s very good as the buttoned-down, awkward Ellie, a girl who seems to be a constant fixture in the lives of everyone in her high school but not really as a friend. The friendship that launches between her and Paul (and drives most of the movie, as Ellie courts Aster via instant messenger apps and old-fashioned snail mail, always pretending to be “Paul”) is easy and goofy, in a way that suggests the actors got along almost as well as their characters do.

And Wu’s eye for beautiful shots is present throughout the film. An opening narration about how the ancient Greeks believed that finding one’s soulmate was an act of finding the person who literally completed you is mirrored in a later shot of two characters floating in a local pool together, their faces reflected in the water below. The soft, warm lighting casts an autumnal glow across the entire film. And Wu’s camera evokes small-town life in a way that neither needlessly celebrates nor demonizes it.

But there are warning signs all the same. Aster (Alexxis Lemire) isn’t really allowed to be a character in the movie until too late, and it’s not really clear why there’s a teacher played by character actor legend Becky Ann Baker, who’s in maybe four scenes. Particularly in the third act, this movie feels like it had a full hour cut out of it.

And, again, that third act is kind of a disaster. There are some really terrific moments there — particularly where the movie leaves its central relationships — but they all hinge on a series of actions that the characters seem to undertake simply because the movie is almost over.

It’s too bad. There’s a great movie inside of The Half of It , and Wu is a tremendous talent who shouldn’t have to wait 15 years to make another feature film. Like too many Netflix movies, this one feels like the script needed a few more drafts.

Critical reception: Several critics have pointed out similar issues with the story but are more forgiving of it overall, thanks to the refreshing friendship between Ellie and Paul. Writes Variety’s Peter Debruge : “Wu’s unique take on teen angst hints at what else we’ve been missing by allowing studios to limit who can tell such stories. If the genre seems played out, or else rife with clichés, it’s a direct result of such exclusion. Expanding the field, as Netflix does, reveals that we still haven’t seen the half of it.” And Indiewire’s Jude Dry allows that “dramatically, The Half of It would have benefited from a more focused structure,” but concludes that Ellie is “such a refreshing and lovable character that you can’t blame everyone for wanting a piece of her, even if it’s only half.”

How to watch it: The Half of It begins streaming on Netflix on Friday, May 1.

Correction: The love interest for both Ellie and Paul is named Aster, not Astrid. The article has been updated!

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With The Half of It , Netflix debuts its second young adult retelling of Cyrano de Bergerac in so many years, following 2018's Sierra Burgess is a Loser . But where Sierra flipped the gender of the story's leads, The Half of It brings a queer storyline into this high school-set reinvention of the classic story. Written and directed by Alice Wu ( Saving Face ), The Half of It follows a straight-A student who writes papers for her classmates to make extra money. She gets hired by a football player to write a letter to the girl he's in love with, but she has feelings for the girl as well. The Half of It puts a queer YA spin on a classic romance story, but Wu makes it her own - delivering a charming, sweet and altogether heartfelt movie.

Ellie Chu (Leah Lewis) is a loner with no friends, but a booming black market essay writing gig at her high school when she's approached by lovesick jock Paul Munsky (Daniel Diemer) to help him write a love letter to the girl of his dreams: Aster Flores (Alexxis Lemire). Ellie and Paul become close friends as they're working together to woo Aster, with the lovable jock breaking down many of the walls Ellie has put up over the years of being an outsider in their small town. But as both Ellie and Paul's feelings for Aster deepen, the three teenagers form a love triangle that will force each of them to confront their views on love and relationships.

Related: Netflix: Every Movie and TV Show Releasing In May 2020

Daniel Diemer and Leah Lewis in The Half of It.

Though The Half of It is ostensibly a teen rom-com, it's also a coming of age story for Ellie as she discovers what it means to be in love - what it means for her to be in love - and how to live her life to the fullest. Wu's story offers an incredibly well-crafted arc about a queer teenager who's coming to terms with their sexuality in a story that's much more nuanced than some other mainstream movies about LGBTQ youth. Ellie doesn't talk about her sexuality with a straightforward assuredness of someone much older. She's hesitant, but her sexuality isn't buried in subtext - it's a delicate balance that Wu walks beautifully. The story of The Half of It may be recognizable to viewers as a retelling of Cyrano , and the coming of age aspect of the film makes it universally relatable, but Ellie's storyline is one not often seen in Hollywood movies. Thanks to Wu's script and direction, it's not only an important story, but a compelling one.

Helping to bring Wu's story to life is the young cast, the core trio of which do most of the heavy lifting - though Collin Chou delivers a warmly compelling supporting performance as Ellie's father Edwin Chu. Still, for the most part it's Lewis, Diemer and Lemire carrying The Half of It , and they do so with grace and deftness. Lewis is particularly captivating to watch as Ellie, who struggles to learn what love is through her relationships with Paul and Aster. It's not often that teenagers in movies actually feel like teenagers (though it's more common now), but Lewis captures the awkwardness and uncertainty of a teenager exceptionally well. Similarly, Diemer's Paul is the charmingly open foil to Ellie's more guarded personality. The two are sweet to watch, and their friendship easily becomes the emotional heart of the movie. While Lemire is given slightly less to work with, she brings a much-needed depth and warmth to Aster to help tie the movie's emotional themes together.

Leah Lewis and Alexxis Lemire in The Half of It

With The Half of It , Wu's latest movie joins the roster of Netflix romantic comedies - specifically its YA rom-coms. Though it may be compared to Sierra Burgess is a Loser for adapting the same story or To All the Boys I've Loved Before for having an Asian-American lead, The Half of It sets itself apart as a uniquely touching story of young love and self-realization. Perhaps what The Half of It shares most with these other Netflix releases is that it likely wouldn't have been made or released under the typical studio-theatrical model, which would have been a shame. Wu's vision for her Cyrano retelling brings an entirely fresh and delightful spin to the classic with her heartfelt story of a queer teen learning about romantic love and the platonic love of friendship.

As such, The Half of It is certainly worth checking out for anyone interested in teen rom-coms, queer love stories and/or coming of age tales. Wu's filmmaking sensibilities help to set the movie apart from other teen-geared romance films, while her script tells a story not often seen in Hollywood, particularly in movies made for young adults. The Half of It will be an important movie for viewers who particularly relate to Ellie, but Wu depicts Ellie's story in such a way that it can be relatable to all audiences. So Netflix users looking for a new movie to watch, particularly one with themes of love and hope, won't go wrong with The Half of It .

Next: The Half of It Trailer

The Half of It is now streaming on Netflix. It is 104 minutes long and is rated PG-13 for brief language and teen drinking.

Let us know what you thought of the film in the comments section!

The Half of It

The Half of It is a 2020 Netflix original movie about Ellie Chu. Ellie is an intelligent teen who agrees to write a love letter for a jock to send to his crush. But things get complicated when she makes an unexpected friendship with the boy and falls in love with his crush.

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‘the half of it’ movie review.

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Director and screenwriter Alice Wu brought in a fresh and influential twist with a common trope in her new movie “The Half of It.”

Based on the 1897 play “Cyrano de Bergerac” by Edmond Rostrand, “The Half of It” is a coming of age film based on the simple premise of friendship and sexuality.

Ellie Chu is a shy, Chinese-American high school senior who lives with her widowed father in a small town named Squahamish. She is known around her school for writing essay papers for her fellow students as a means to make extra cash on the side.

One day, she is approached by football player Paul Munsky, who asks her to write a love letter to another student named Aster Flores.

Chu initially rejects Munsky’s offer as she is secretly in love with Flores herself. However, after learning that her father is struggling with house payments, she accepts his offer.

Throughout the movie, Chu and Flores write letters to each other, leaving Chu to fall more and more in love with Flores and often forgetting that Flores believes she is writing to Munsky.

Actress Leah Lewis was the perfect choice for the role of Ellie Chu. Her character handles the topic of sexual orientation in the most delicate and thoughtful way possible.

“Love is not patient, and kind, and humble,” Ellie Chu says in the film. “It’s not finding your perfect half. It’s the trying and reaching and failing.”

On the other hand, there were a few questionable moments in the film.

Halfway through, Paul Munsky falls for Ellie Chu. In any other movie, this would create a huge conflict between characters. However, nothing really comes of it which leads you to wonder, why was this added in the first place?

The film is a little over 90 minutes long but feels as though it drags on forever. While the plot is simple and entertaining, there is nothing special about it that would differentiate it from other generic high school movies.

Overall, “The Half of It” was a pleasant and enjoyable film. The ending gave into a more realistic perspective of what LGBTQ+ teens go through in regards to relationships.

Wu managed to create a film that is light-hearted, down-to-earth and true to life in the best way possible.

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The Half Of It (2020) was released today...thoughts?

I love these low key movies that have been releasing recently. This movie shows high school in one of the most accurate representations I’ve seen in a while. This movie normalizes talking in different languages at home and gives all the characters unique storylines. Although its not a perfect movie, it’s one of the best hidden gems I’ve found lately. It gave me a similar vibe to All the Bright Places in an indie coming of age story way.

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Tv/streaming, collections, chaz's journal, great movies, contributors, the good half.

Now streaming on:

"Are you lost?," an old lady at the mall asks sad-sack Renn Wheeland ( Nick Jonas ) during one of his omnipresent bouts of millennial ennui . It's the kind of innocuous statement that, when revealed in stark close-up, is meant to convey a broader thematic underpinning in Robert Schwartzman's weepy indie dramedy "The Good Half." You see, Renn is lost, in the way so many sad white boys in movies like these are: His mom ( Elisabeth Shue ) has recently passed, and he's too emotionally stunted and cynical to deal with it in any sort of healthy way. So, too, is Brett Ryland's script, sadly, Schwartzman's limp direction guiding a listless Jonas through a half-baked meditation on grief that feels too twee by half.

The bastard stepchild of " Garden State " and " Elizabethtown ," "The Good Half" feels too measured to work as melodrama and too mannered to be mumblecore. From its opening minutes, featuring Jonas lying expressionless in bed as the opening titles appear, Schwartzman lacquers this whole thing with a syrupy haze of melancholy, as if channeling Zach Braff on a hefty dose of Benadryl. Renn, you see, is your prototypical Disaffected White Boy, an obnoxiously passive stand-in for the screenwriter's obviously autobiographical journey. He's an aspiring screenwriter plugging away in LA, fighting off overtures from his boss to take a modest promotion ("you'd be supervising the payroll ," he offers) because he fears it'll make him lose his dream. But naturally, his mother dies, and he takes the first flight out to his hometown of Cleveland, Ohio to deal with his family and bury her.

Renn's relationship with his family, and his mother specifically, is complicated in that first-draft screenplay kind of way. In flashback, we see his mother as the kind of free-spirit that's fun to be around but dangerous to trust: a formative memory for Renn is being abandoned at the store while Mom stole trinkets and tried on clothes she'll just end up returning. He's avoided seeing his family for months as Mom wasted away from cancer. So his father ( Matt Walsh ), stepfather ( David Arquette ), and sister ( Brittany Snow ) are all various flavors of angry at him. And his snarky, cynical attitude doesn't help, Ryland sneaking one obnoxious quip after another in Renn's mouth, Jonas delivering them with all the conviction of (ironically) a eulogy. Sure, he's supposed to be masking his grief through humor, but neither him nor his family enjoy it, so we don't either.

One of his few lifelines outside his well-meaning but thinly drawn family is Zoey ( Alexandra Shipp ), a quirky girl he meets on his flight home, where they bond over whether or not all '90s action movies are masterpieces. She's the kind of Manic Pixie Dream Girl archetype you'd think we'd left behind in the late 2000s, yet here she is with her infectious personality (she's so likable that she makes two new best friends that morning who follow her to karaoke) and oh-so-charming witticisms (e.g. referring to their current locale as "the land of Cleve"). On top of all that, she's a therapist, thus serving double duty as Renn's romantic and emotional support. She's literally tailor-made in the script to fix him, and Shipp gets little to do besides that.

Schwartzman's approach is sluggish and poorly-paced, the film color-corrected to within an inch of its life and unable to balance the delicate tightrope act of comedy and drama that good examples of this kind of movie can attempt. Instead, it's didactic and miserable, one scene after another hammering home the bone-simple idea that it's not easy to grieve a loved one. The flashbacks serve little purpose but to undercut Renn's contention that his mother "hated" her life, and the occasional slow-motion needle drop sequence feels like a limp attempt to throw a Wes Anderson or Zach Braff flourish at the film to impose some kind of style on the whole thing. It feels derivative, and just doesn't work.

Early on, Walsh's put-upon father confesses to Renn that he has no idea how to help his kids through their grief: "I feel like I should tell you something profound, like quoting Thoreau or something." This line is more revealing than you'd think; "The Good Half" is desperate to say something profound about the thorny nature of grief and how it forces us to confront the scary future we face without that person we love most in the world. But there's nothing new here that hasn't been cribbed from better, or even just earlier, texts. Instead, like Renn himself, Schwartzman and Ryland keep themselves (and us) at a distance from the material and our characters, keeping any of us from getting any closure or finding something new to say about such a universal experience.

Clint Worthington

Clint Worthington is a Chicago-based film/TV critic and podcaster. He is the founder and editor-in-chief of The Spool , as well as a Senior Staff Writer for Consequence . He is also a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and Critics Choice Association. You can also find his byline at RogerEbert.com, Vulture, The Companion, FOX Digital, and elsewhere.

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‘The Half of It’ on Netflix: Film Review

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Ellie Chu is a small-town Cyrano, with a twist, in Netflix original “ The Half of It ,” which could well be the most literary high school movie to come along in the short lives of its adolescent audience — and not just because writer-director Alice Wu was loosely inspired by a late-19th-century French play that most teens won’t have read (although they might have seen “Sierra Burgess Is a Loser,” which also drew from Edmond Rostand). “The Half of It” qualifies as literary because it loves language; it relishes reading, respects writing and believes in the power of words to make skeptics fall in love.

Right, no need to get all purple about it. What’s this about a twist, you ask?

‘The Good Half’ Review: Only Half Good

Nick Jonas and Brittany Snow play siblings coordinating funeral logistics for their mom in this drama, a cross between “Terms of Endearment” and a Hallmark movie.

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Three people wearing sweaters stand by a wall in a house.

By Natalia Winkelman

“Grief turns out to be a place none of us know until we reach it,” Joan Didion once wrote. In “The Good Half,” that place is Cleveland, where 20-somethings with names like Renn, Leigh and Zoey frequent karaoke bars and banter about movies.

Renn (Nick Jonas) is a struggling writer in Hollywood flying back for his mom’s funeral. He is prone to avoidant behavior, the screenplay, written by Brett Ryland, shows and tells us, and his homecoming is a big deal. On the plane, he meets Zoey (Alexandra Shipp), a ray of sunshine who likes ’90s action movies and quotes “Scarface.”

In his fourth narrative feature, the director Robert Schwartzman (brother to Jason) takes us deep into young adult land. Over several days, Renn and his sister Leigh (Brittany Snow) coordinate post-loss logistics while rolling their eyes at Rick (David Arquette), their bellicose step-father. Breaking up the sibling repartee are periodic flashbacks to happier times with Mom (Elisabeth Shue).

When, and to which female listener, Renn will confront his demons is the question that drives “The Good Half,” which feels caught between “Terms of Endearment” and a Hallmark movie. Wry gags, like a hoarder priest, butt up against heartfelt exchanges. Snow, as the daughter who always played second fiddle, brings real feeling to her role — suggesting that she may in fact be the good half of this insipid drama.

The Good Half Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 36 minutes. In theaters.

‘The Good Half’ Review: Nick Jonas Leads a Timid and Awkward Exploration of Familial Grief

Robert Schwartzman’s cliché-filled indie effort follows a young man dealing with a parent’s premature death.

By Tomris Laffly

Tomris Laffly

‘A Family Affair’ Review: Zac Efron and Nicole Kidman’s Hollywood-Set Rom-Com Has No Heat 2 months ago
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A reserved man with some unresolved childhood issues returns to his hometown for the funeral of a parent. This isn’t only the premise at the heart of Robert Schwartzman ’s well-meaning yet timid feature “ The Good Half ,” but also a recurrent foundation on which many a melancholic American dramedy, from “Elizabethtown” to “Garden State” to “This Is Where I Leave You.”

Reviewed online, August 14, 2024. (In Tribeca Festival.) Running time: 100 MIN.

Production: (U.S.) A Utopia release of a The Ranch Productions production. Producers: Russell Wayne Groves, Robert Schwartzman, Brett Ryland. Executive Producers: Nick Jonas, Jim Gianopulos, Kevin Wheeler, Jonny Gordon, David Ruttenberg, Cole Harper, Ben Shields Catlin.
Crew: Director: Robert Schwartzman. Screenplay: Brett Ryland. Camera: Michael Rizzi. Editor: Chris Donlon. Music: Ben Messelbeck, William Schwartzman.
With: Nick Jonas, Brittany Snow, David Arquette, Alexandra Shipp, Matt Walsh, Elisabeth Shue.

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Movie Review: ‘Trap’

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With “Trap,” writer/director M. Night Shyamalan has given us a half-decent movie. By which I mean that half of it is… decent. The first half delivers the taut thriller we’ve been promised, and it’s not great or anything, but it’s reasonably suspenseful and enjoyable. And then the movie becomes garbage. Not the unique, crazy garbage that only Shyamalan can deliver, but uncreative garbage that no self-respecting filmmaker wants to deliver.

At the beginning of the film, we are introduced to doting dad Cooper (Josh Hartnett). He’s taking his daughter Riley (Ariel Donoghue) to a concert by her favorite pop star, Lady Raven (Saleka Shyamalan). He learns from oversharing merchandise seller Jamie (Jonathan Langdon) that the FBI is monitoring the concert. They have a hot tip that a serial killer known as The Butcher is in the arena, and with the help of profiler Dr. Josephene Grant (Hayley Mills), they’re going to catch him.

This makes Cooper very worried. He starts behaving erratically and evasively, and it certainly looks like he’s The Butcher… because he is The Butcher. Don’t buy into any of those ridiculous fan theories about how, say, preteen daughter Riley is really The Butcher just because “the trailers ‘imply’ Cooper is The Butcher, but they don’t flat-out say it.”

I’m flat-out saying it. The suspense in this movie comes from whether or not Cooper will be stopped or if he’ll kill anyone along the way. If you come into this movie expecting a mystery about The Butcher’s identity, you’ll be disappointed by more than just the weak second half.

The stuff about Cooper trying to weasel his way out of the arena really does work. The well-cast Hartnett is as engaging a lead as this movie could have, and Shyamalan expertly keeps the tension steadily growing. This being a Shyamalan film, it’s also important to note oddball supporting characters like Jamie and the mother (Marnie McPhail) of a girl that doesn’t get along with Riley.

These characters effectively add to the suspense, and they’re completely unaware of it. I complained about these types of scene-stealers in my review of “Longlegs” a few weeks back, but this movie isn’t as obnoxious about trying to make everyone quirky. Advertisement

The good times don’t last. Eventually the action leaves the arena and goes back to Cooper’s house, complete with wife Rachel (Alison Pill) and son Logan (Lachlan Miller). The perspective even shifts from Cooper to someone else for a little while. The venue change isn’t exactly where things start going downhill for this movie, but it’s soon after.

The real turning point is when Cooper has to drop the façade and start behaving like a stereotypical bad guy. I was digging scared, desperate Cooper, but when he’s The Butcher, he’s neither scary nor interesting.

Then, of course, there’s that interminable ending. Cooper manages to fool the FBI more than once, which is all the FBI should be permitted. The agents are all dumb as bricks. Cooper should have just taken his chances with being questioned at the concert and he probably would have gotten away. He makes some annoying mistakes too, but I can somewhat chalk those up to mental instability.

More problematic than the plausibility of the characters’ decisions is that the timing and energy are all off, like Shyamalan’s inspiration just ran out of gas. I guess he was so dead-set on getting the concert scenes right that he considered everything else expendable.

The pop music of Lady Raven is a good enough metaphor for “Trap.” It isn’t disastrous, like previous efforts from the Shyamalan family. I was relieved when Saleka proved to be a better singer and actress than her nepo-baby credentials would suggest. But at the same time, I couldn’t imagine any of these unmemorable songs becoming major hits. Just like I can’t picture “Trap” being anyone’s favorite thriller or Shyamalan movie. Here’s hoping you can easily get out of the theater.

Grade: C- “Trap” is rated PG-13 for some violent content and brief strong language. Its running time is 105 minutes.

Contact Bob Garver at [email protected].

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Stream It Or Skip It: ‘The Union’ on Netflix, a Terminally Bland Mark Wahlberg-Halle Berry Action-Comedy

Where to stream:.

The Union (2024)
Mark Wahlberg

Mike Colter Talks ‘The Union,’ Kicking Halle Berry, and Mark Wahlberg’s Infamous Work-Out Schedule: “He Is Dedicated”

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Mark Wahlberg and Halle Berry team up for The Union , a new, distinctly Netflixian generi-thriller action-comedy of the type that the streamer loves to crank out on the regular. And why shouldn’t they? The likes of Spenser Confidential and The Mother (and other wholly forgettable ventures) do big numbers on Netflix – big, dumb, expensive movies that are perfect for unchallenging emptybrain weekend watching. It’s part of the Netflix brand now. Not that we’re pre-judging The Union , mind you; some of these films can be serviceable on their own terms (say, Extraction , or The Gray Man , of which I may be the only defender, albeit not all that passionately). So maybe Wahlberg and Berry can transcend expectations and generate a little excitement here? Hey, at least expectations are low!

THE UNION : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Mike McKenna (Wahlberg) is just your average Jersey schmoe – construction worker, in his 40s, lives with his mom (Lorraine Bracco), goes out for beerz with the guyz, has to start his ol’ pickemup truck with a screwdriver, has a one-night-stand with his former 7th-grade English teacher (Dana Delany!), etc. His better days seem to be behind him, but is he aware of that? He frankly doesn’t seem to be a self-reflective type. Just a party guy, woo hoo and all that, a Wahlbergian type who’s pretty thin on the screenplay page and not much thicker on the screen. He experienced troo luv back in high school with Roxanne Hall (Berry), who we meet in the cold open – she’s an international spy/agent/ops person who finds herself in a world of poop when a mission goes inside-outside-upside-down. Her husband/fellow spy croaks via sniper bullet during the parade of SNAFUs. She barely survives to go back home to Jersey and surprise Mike at the bar. It’s been decades. Just like old times, I guess.

Roxanne’s all come-hither smiles and motorcycles and leather with a shock-top of bleach-blond hair, like, hello there . Who could resist? They pour down a few and flirt and then she tranqs him and he wakes up in London. It happens! She needs a new recruit to join The Union. “Half the intelligence community doesn’t know we exist, and the other half regrets finding out,” is how she describes the org. They want blue-collar guys like Mike, who happens to be cut like a Masters of the Universe action figure, and he says OK fine, even though it means dropping off the grid for a crash-course spy-training montage and a highly secretive mission, and probably missing being best man in his homie’s wedding. I think he does this in hopes of rekindling a little sumpin’ with Roxanne? Or maybe he realizes he needs to put the kibosh on his going-nowhere life? Sure. Whatever. He just goes with it and the movie asks that we do the same even though we’re like this is the premise? Indeed. This is the premise.

About here is where we should get into the spy plot of it all, not that any of it matters in the least. I mean, this movie is so lazy, even the MacGuffin is half-assed: There’s a hard drive full of sensitive information and evildoers have it and The Union needs to get it back. That’s more than enough summary, trust me. The bad guys are invisible nobodies behind a scheme to auction off the hard drive to the highest bidder, and I apologize, because I said I wouldn’t summarize anymore, but I kinda had to in order to illustrate that none of the villains are worth mentioning in the movie-review sense where you name them (and follow that name with the actor name in parentheses). Some of Mike and Roxanne’s compadres are played by notables: J.K. Simmons as the no-nonsense boss, Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje as another spy, Jackie Earle Haley as a tech guy. Will they thwart the dastardly scheme? Man, I’m getting bored – again, since I’m typing things about the stuff that already bored me once, while I watched it. That doesn’t bode well for this review.

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: This watery, ten-times-removed Mission: Impossible wannabe may replace Red Notice as Netflix’s most memorably unmemorable action-comedy to date. It’s not as bad as Ghosted , an Apple TV+ outing that was not unmemorable for its utter soullessness. For what it’s worth.

Performance Worth Watching: We’re all for Halle Berry as an action star. She has the moxie and screen presence for it, easily. But she needs more John Wick 3 s and fewer The Union s crossing her desk.

Memorable Dialogue: Ugh, I says, ugh:

Mike: Just call me the Jersey James Bond! Roxanne: Double-O-go-f—k yourself? Mike: Exactly!

Sex and Skin: No time for any of that.

Our Take: The Union prompts one to wonder, is it enough for a movie to give us a few halfway-decent action sequences, filmed primarily with practical effects instead of shitty CG? Obviously not. Director Julian Farino shows a bit of skill in piecing together chases and fights, but he’s working a screenplay that’s a barely noticeable shade better than the last entry in the direct-to-nowhere Sniper franchise. And every other damn movie these days is about the OPS. Have we had enough of the OPS? Yes. We’ve had enough of the OPS. Always with the high-tech whatchamajiggery and secretive planning and running and gunplay and earpiece comminiques and international locales and elaborate HQs and authoritative J.K. Simmonses barking orders inside a command center filled with monitors and dweebits in headsets typing at terminals. Every. Other. Movie.

Notably, the film’s attempts at comedy are as mired in the tarpits as Berry and Wahlberg’s romantic chemistry. It might aim for a little Mr. and Mrs. Smith action if it showed any gumption as it works through a sighworthy plot with a couple of bland switchbacks and feints, and a third act that becomes a hyperventilatingly tiresome game of Pass The Briefcase. I guess the film moves quickly and there’s a couple of Springsteen songs on the soundtrack, if you’re the type of person who likes to shout the word Bruuuuuce when ‘Born in the USA’ plays on the AM/FM. This is clearly a pretty well-paid gig for all involved parties, Netflix tending to dump a lot of money into star-driven action fodder that hogs the middle of the road for a couple weeks on the streamer’s top 10 before being replaced in one’s memory by a fresh wave of hedgehog memes. There’s no real creativity here. The Union is a business deal in movie form, and about as dully cynical as Hollywood gets.

Our Call: OK, I’m exaggerating. Truth is, you’ll forget this movie before the memes hit. SKIP IT.

John Serba is a freelance writer and film critic based in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

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Movie Review – The Good Half (2024)

August 13, 2024 by Robert Kojder

The Good Half , 2024.

Directed by Robert Schwartzman. Starring Nick Jonas, Brittany Snow, Matt Walsh, David Arquette, Alexandra Shipp, Elisabeth Shue, Mason Cufari, Dee Beasnael, Ryan Bergara, Grey Henson, Mimi Gianopulos, Steve Park, Evangeline Johns, and Jim C. Ferris.

Renn Wheeland returns home to Cleveland for his mother’s funeral. Once there, he forges new relationships while healing old ones before confronting his problems and trying to face his grief.

For a film about returning home to Cleveland for a funeral, director Robert Schwartzman’s The Good Half is surprisingly busy. It’s also not meaningful since the script from Brett Ryland also paints in broad strokes. On the flight home, Nick Jonas’ Renn Wheeland (the character names are almost as chaotic as the film’s questionable tonal shifts) meets young therapist Zoey (Alexandra Shipp), heading to Cleveland for a work-related convention. Even though there is some chemistry there, Renn is too closed off and hurting even to begin contemplating therapy as a useful and productive tool to better himself. The greater frustration is the simple question of why this film about grieving and mourning within a dysfunctional family (more on them soon) even needs a love interest. Surely, there is a more naturalistic method of suggesting this guy needs some therapy.

Renn, a writer grappling with whether he wants to continue pursuing that career, is fairly negative. While preparing for his mother’s (played by Elisabeth Shue in flashbacks) eulogy, he prefers to list off things she hated, swearing that she wouldn’t have even liked hearing people celebrate her for what she did like. He also can’t help himself from coping with a smug sense of humor about the entire situation, regularly getting into arguments with his mom’s unfaithful second husband, Rick (David Arquette), who, by the way, is relaxed and handling the grieving stage much better.

Everyone grieves differently is one of the primary messages here, with the other using flashbacks and flash-forwards as a way to show how much of our parents blends its way into our personalities (Renn also remarks that his mom absolutely hated coming across someone in public that she didn’t want to talk to, meaning that 15 minutes later we get a similar scene of him also doing that.) There is also a glimpse into what the film’s title represents, which comes down to how Renn was always the favorite child, not his sister Leigh (Brittany Snow.) This is also the kind of film that needs characters to say the title in a manner practically spoon-feeding the point.

That also doesn’t necessarily mean The Good Half is a bad movie, but it is a surface-level experience that doesn’t deeply dive into the specifics between these characters, operating under the belief that having themes and gesturing toward them is enough. There is no strong understanding of the marriage between the mom and her goofy first husband Darren (an amusing Matt Walsh), or what ways Renn was the favored child or a meaningful exploration into why the second marriage lasted until his mom’s death. Considering that most of the runtime is an otherwise solid Nick Jonas being irritating and making passive-aggressive jokes toward others, finding the good in either half becomes a struggle.

Bizarrely, the finale turns into a home invasion heist, undercutting anything serious about The Good Half was trying to get out while also destroying tonal consistency in a manner that doesn’t do anything for the characters or film beyond merely extending it another 20 minutes. It’s as if the filmmakers decided the whole movie was pretty downbeat and that there needed to be something silly to send people home happy. Remember, throughout all of this, there is that previously mentioned romantic subplot shoved in here, coming and going without grace. Never afraid to go for the low-hanging fruit; there’s a strong case to be made that neither half is good here, which is a shame since the story at least feels real until it goes off the rails.

Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★

Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd , or email me at [email protected]

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Film Review: The Half Of It
Movie Review: Netflix’s The Half of It is a touching rom-com
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COMMENTS

The Half of It movie review & film summary (2020)
Advertisement. "The Half of It" drags a bit in the middle, just as the tension should be mounting as to whether the characters' true identities and motives will be exposed. There's a languid quality to some of the pacing that perhaps fits with the sleepy, Pacific Northwest setting but weakens the film from an overall narrative perspective.
The Half of It
Rated 0.5/5 Stars • Rated 0.5 out of 5 stars 04/13/24 Full Review Cara J One of the most beautiful movies to exist I am hoping that this movie gets a sequel it deserves one Rated 5/5 Stars ...
The Half of It Movie Review
Thanks to a filmmaker, main character, and love interest who are all women, the film definitely tells its story with a female perspective. Written and directed by Alice Wu (her first film since the groundbreaking Chinese American lesbian romance Saving Face in 2004), the movie has a queer Chinese American protagonist. Ellie lives with her immigrant father in a rural, majority-White town.
'The Half of It' Review: Being Yourself (and That Person, Too)
With tenderness, humor and beauty, "The Half of It" comprehends the chasm between wanting and being. The Half of It. Rated PG-13 for brief language, teen drinking and the delicate throb of ...
'The Half of It' Review
'The Half of It' on Netflix: Film 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.
'The Half of It' Review
Netflix. The new film The Half of It (Netflix) feels like few other teen movies. Set in the rural, socially conservative town of Squahamish, Washington, it doesn't show anyone shopping, or ...
'The Half Of It' Review: There's More Than Meets The Eye With This
Alice Wu directs Netflix's teen LGBTQ modern-day riff on Cyrano de Bergerac, but with a deeper message beneath the surface. Read our The Half Of It review.
The Half of It
The Half of It, new today, seems like something of a remedy to that - an undeniably but not tokenistically progressive affair from writer-director Alice Wu about a queer love triangle in the small ...
The Half of It (2020)
The Half of It: Directed by Alice Wu. With Leah Lewis, Daniel Diemer, Alexxis Lemire, Wolfgang Novogratz. 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.
'The Half of It' Review: A Perfect High School Rom-com
Ellie's relationships — her friendship with Paul, and love for Aster — feel even more uncertain, and ultimately more poignant, as they unfold against this backdrop. The Half of It just won Best Narrative Feature at the postponed Tribeca Film Festival, and it seems that critics agree that Wu has made something enduring.
The Half of It review: A smart, queer teen spin on Cyrano de Bergerac
Reviews. Leah Lewis stars in Alice Wu's latest film, a queer teen romance that puts a modern spin on the story of Cyrano de Bergerac. Ellie (Lewis) writes all her classmates' essays. She's ...
The Half of It review
The Half of It is about the quiet heartache of being an outsider. Before meeting Paul, Ellie has no friends other than her father, who raises her alone. Her classmates refer to her as "the Chinese girl.". Ellie doesn't dream past the borders of her town, not even for college. It's ironic, considering she and her dad run the city's ...
The Half of It (2020)
6/10. A tender and insightful story about a coming-of-age that redefines friendship and love. Mysterygeneration 7 January 2024. The Half of It by Alice Wu is a cinematic masterpiece that deftly combines themes of friendship, introspection, and the intricacies of love.
The Half of It Is a Gentle Ode to Love and Loneliness
Netflix's The Half of It begins somewhat deceptively, with a highly stylized animated retelling of an old Greek myth in which the four-armed, four-legged, two-headed humans of ancient times are ...
The Half Of It Review
The Half Of It is flawed, but it's an affable film with its heart in the right place. Sweet, if not a little bit self-serious, The Half Of It is a likeable if not especially memorable entry into ...
Movie Review: Netflix's The Half of It is a touching rom-com
Movie review: Netflix's teen romantic comedy The Half of It, directed by Alice Wu, is yet another riff on Cyrano de Bergerac, but the great performances, likable characters, and smart direction ...
Netflix's The Half of It review: This queer rom-com falls apart in the
Apr 30, 2020, 5:40 AM PDT. Leah Lewis and Daniel Diemer star in The Half of It. Netflix / KC Bailey. Emily St. James was a senior correspondent for Vox, covering American identities. Before she ...
The Half of It Movie Review
The Half of It Review: Netflix's Queer Teen Rom-Com Is A Charmer. With The Half of It, Netflix debuts its second young adult retelling of Cyrano de Bergerac in so many years, following 2018's Sierra Burgess is a Loser. But where Sierra flipped the gender of the story's leads, The Half of It brings a queer storyline into this high school-set ...
'The Half of It' movie review
The film is a little over 90 minutes long but feels as though it drags on forever. While the plot is simple and entertaining, there is nothing special about it that would differentiate it from other generic high school movies. Overall, "The Half of It" was a pleasant and enjoyable film. The ending gave into a more realistic perspective of ...
The Half of It
Summary A shy, introverted, Chinese-American, straight-A student finds herself helping the school jock woo the girl they both secretly love. In the process, each teaches the other about the nature of love as they find connection in the most unlikely of places. Comedy. Drama. Directed By: Alice Wu.
The Half of It
The Half of It is a 2020 American coming-of-age comedy-drama film written, directed, and co-produced by Alice Wu.It stars Leah Lewis, Daniel Diemer, and Alexxis Lemire, with Enrique Murciano, Wolfgang Novogratz, Catherine Curtin, Becky Ann Baker, and Collin Chou in supporting roles. It is loosely inspired by Edmond Rostand's 1897 play Cyrano de Bergerac, and follows a Chinese-American student ...
The Half Of It (2020) was released today...thoughts? : r/movies
The heavy use of texting on phones makes this film feel empty and detached. Achingly slow pacing that does nothing for the impact. This film could have easily been half its length. There doesn't seem to be a coherent message, and where there is an attempt at one, it feels slightly forceful and heavy-handed.
The Good Half movie review & film summary (2024)
The bastard stepchild of "Garden State" and "Elizabethtown," "The Good Half" feels too measured to work as melodrama and too mannered to be mumblecore.From its opening minutes, featuring Jonas lying expressionless in bed as the opening titles appear, Schwartzman lacquers this whole thing with a syrupy haze of melancholy, as if channeling Zach Braff on a hefty dose of Benadryl.
'The Half of It' on Netflix: Film Review
Ellie Chu is a small-town Cyrano, with a twist, in Netflix original "The Half of It," which could well be the most literary high school movie to come along in the short lives of its adolescent ...
'The Good Half' Review: Only Half Good
When, and to which female listener, Renn will confront his demons is the question that drives "The Good Half," which feels caught between "Terms of Endearment" and a Hallmark movie.
'The Good Half' Review: Nick Jonas Leads an Awkward Indie Drama
'The Good Half' Review: Nick Jonas Leads a Timid and Awkward Exploration of Familial Grief Robert Schwartzman's cliché-filled indie effort follows a young man dealing with a parent's ...
The Good Half (2024) Movie Reviews
The Good Half (2024) Fan Reviews and Ratings Powered by Rotten Tomatoes. Close Audience Score. The percentage of users who made a verified movie ticket purchase and rated this 3.5 stars or higher. ... Ryan's World the Movie: Hero Bundle and movie tickets are non-refundable and non-exchangeable. Limited time offer. While supplies last. Must be ...
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The Good Half (2024)
Movie Review - The Good Half (2024) August 13, 2024 by Robert Kojder. The Good Half, 2024. ... That also doesn't necessarily mean The Good Half is a bad movie, but it is a surface-level ...

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