"Girls like girls like boys do; nothing new"
As a cis straight male, it is very, very easy for me to relate to a gay woman. I guess you can call me an ally. I'm just a lesbian trapped in an ugly guy's body.
This might be the first movie based on a novel based on a music video based off an anthem to female love, all by the same artist, Hayley Kiyoko. It's set in the early days of the internet and AOL Instant Messenger (those sound effects still haunt me), at an age where feelings are brand new and coming out still felt taboo. Coming-of-age might be my favorite genre because it allows me to experience something that I felt I missed out on, during the most important and seminal part of one's life. Film can be a gateway to experiencing first love all over again, for the first time, over and over. That combination of nostalgia and innocence never fails to stir me. The jealousy, the heartache, the pangs of raw emotion, of falling for someone who is emotionally unavailable. The most relatable feelings for me. I can't say for certain why this movie moved me so. Maybe it's just capturing an era so precisely. Like trapping lightning in a bottle.
4 "olive juice" out of 5
