Perhaps we are on the precipice of some large turn back to the high school rom com. This year alone, Love, Simon, Blockers, and now Alex Strangelove have come out. The cultural acceptance of homosexuality has clearly been an essential part of this resurgence, and Alex Strangelove continues this trend in the movies which modernizes an old tale of discovering and defining yourself through your burgeoning sexuality.
The titular Alex is actually Alex Truelove (Daniel Doheny), an awkward but decent kid well liked enough to be voted class president. He has a love of animals that draws him close to Claire (Madeline Weinstein), so close that eventually they start dating and become one of the great couples in their high school. Behind the scenes though, Alex is very timid about actually having sex with Claire even though she’s totally into it. Part of this is because his buddies, especially Dell (Daniel Zolghadri), push him to put his P into a V, but also because at a party, Alex meets a gay boy named Elliott (Antonio Marziale) who sparks up long ago buried feelings Alex has, confusing him about Claire, and especially, himself.
Alex Strangelove is SO frustrating, because the potential the core of the story is going for is there. However, at times it seems there is mandated tired story beats from a worse, stereotypical high school movie that get randomly inserted and grind the story’s emotional progress to a screeching halt worse and worse as the story goes on. The movie patiently starts by setting up how great Claire and Alex are together, with shared interests and a weird sensibility and sense of humor….to be kinda undercut with the obligatory party drug use (at least this is pretty inspired and a great running gag) and gross out gag (also very clever). Ok so far, no biggie! You need at least a party…it’s high school! Alex then meets Elliott, and the spark between the two of them is so intense that Alex freaks out and doesn’t know what to do. Meanwhile, Claire feels as confused as Alex because she doesn’t know what is wrong and can’t really help him with this problem. Nice…no real villain, and it sets Claire up to be this tragic, sympathetic figure because it’s clear at this point their consummation is going to go terribly….so we have to tie this into college acceptance and a sorority party while Claire’s mom gets the cancer? Um, ok. Not great. Then we get a triggering flashback that isn’t necessary to drive home the point. Oh, no. Finally, I’m gonna give you one guess which high school event the problems all get resolved. As the story goes on, Alex Strangelove goes for the easy out more than the wonderful complex ones it was setting up, leading to a happy ending but maybe not the best emotional ending.
Maybe I’m projecting something special onto Alex Strangelove because of the stellar cast of kids that I can’t wait to see more of. Daniel Doheny has to make it seem like he can have chemistry with both Claire and Elliott, and the kid nails it. Alex is that great type of high school protagonist: a confused but basically great kid and friend that you hope good things happen to, even when he screws up. Antonio Marziale needed more screen time, because his Elliott is instantly charming and just a delight to be around. Even when the screenplay is writing him terribly Marziale keeps the story afloat with his affable emotional honesty. Daniel Zolghadri and Annie Q. have a nice little arc revolving around Dell’s crush on Claire’s BFF, and Zolghadri sells Dell’s character arc with the little screen time he gets. For me, the standout here is Madeline Weinstein as Claire. There are a minefield of traps for Claire to fall down and just be forgotten by the screenplay. But it’s clear from the get go the Weinstein is an adept minesweeper. Claire’s cute but cool, and importantly, graceful and confident to handle the struggles in her relationship with Alex. I wish the 2nd half of the story could have given her more time to figure out herself than just Manic Pixie Dream Girl for Alex, because whenever Weinstein is onscreen, she finds herself involved in the best scenes of the film.
Netflix’s game plan is clear to me now: couples and teenagers must be key deomographics for them, so the high school movie and rom coms will be part of their production schedule for the forseeable future. Alex Strangelove, despite its frustrating execution, is a perfect Friday night with nothing to do film, and a half decent one with a perfectly lovely story and message. For Oscars, that’s meh, but for Netflix, that’s perfect for a date, whatever your sexual preference.