Valentine’s Day may be a rather silly holiday, but it is a wonderful excuse to celebrate love and romance in the movies. In that spirit, check back each day leading up to February 14th for a cinematic advent calendar of recommendations presented as mini-reviews.
Day 13: Plus One (2019)
Dir. Alice Wu
Leah Lewis, Daniel Diemer
Logline: In a modern update of Cyrano de Bergerac, an awkward high school girl ghostwrites love letters to the popular girl on behalf of a male classmate but soon discovers she may be writing more for herself.
Why you should watch: Alice Wu made us wait 16 years between masterpieces, but if that’s what takes to produce a follow-up to Saving Face (2004) as perfect as The Half of It I suppose I’ll get over it. Wu left a career in computer science to write and direct the Joan Chen-starring Saving Face, which is a movie I almost included on this list so you can consider it a bonus recommendation. That film premiered to rapturous response on the festival circuit and solidified Wu as a beacon in queer filmmaking with her tale of a mother and daughter reckoning with their respective sexualities. The Half of It picks up the thematic torch where Wu left off. This time, her film focuses on secretly queer teenager Ellie Chu (Leah Lewis), known for her prodigious writing abilities, who is hired by bumbling but tender Paul Munsky (Daniel Diemer) to write love letters on his behalf to “It” girl Aster Flores (Alexxis Lemire).
While much of the teen rom-com genre has spun towards a Riverdale-esque blend of nauseating neon colors and unnecessary melodrama, The Half of It eschews all of that in favor of a lyrical yet no less hilarious approach. Narratively, Wu’s script grants equal exploration to Ellie’s struggles with her intersectional identities as both Asian-American and queer, her unlikely friendship with Paul, and the awkward desperation of young love. That Wu stunningly accomplishes all of this with a sub-two-hour runtime is a testament to her enviable skill for story craft. Directorially, Wu favors atmospheric compositions that skew impressionistic. Her palette and settings are earthy and realistic, but within them, she locates haunting beauty. One scene concerning two characters and a hot spring stands out as a masterclass in using steam, reflection, and close-ups to convey emotion. She is of course helped by a sensational leading turn from Lewis, who balances simmering rage with a poetic heart to staggering results.
I counted The Half of It as one of my best films of 2020 and revisiting it once again for this series I maintain that it was a standout from a strong cinematic year. All I can hope now is that Wu shortens the gap between films just a little because Lord knows I don’t want to wait another 16 years to lose myself in a new vision from her miraculous mind.
Where you can watch: Streaming on Netflix. Rent on Apple, YouTube, and elsewhere.
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Devin McGrath-Conwell holds a B.A. in Film / English from Middlebury College and is currently pursuing an MFA in Screenwriting from Emerson College. His obsessions include all things horror, David Lynch, the darkest of satires, and Billy Joel. Devin’s writing has also appeared in publications such as Filmhounds Magazine, Film Cred, Horror Homeroom, and Cinema Scholars.