#i have mixed opinions tbh on the rest of the movie but the prom scene is unparalleled truly

[art--harridan]

[Image description: A traditional oil pastel drawing of Carrie White. It depicts her on prom night, drenched in blood. Her mouth is set and her gaze is piercing as her eyes point down. Her arms are splayed out by her sides, and look unnaturally stiff. She's mostly coloured red, with very dramatic shading and lighting. The style is slightly blocky. In the background, there's some stylised star silhouettes across a backdrop of varying blues.]

[spearfeld]

So I just got done watching Alex Strangelove

I have really mixed opinions about this movie. I’m gonna give my full review under the cut, as well as address some of the arguments that this movie accomplishes what Love, Simon couldn’t. Beware of spoilers for both Alex Strangelove and Love, Simon.

This is a long one, so be warned.

Okay, first I’ll give me general overview of Alex Strangelove. This movie is a HUGE mixed bag for me so buckle up, I guess.

Basic plot synopsis: Alex and Claire have been dating for a while but haven’t had sex. They keep making plans to try and have sex, but Alex meets this boy named Elliot, who is gay. Alex and Elliot end up forming a connection that causes Alex to rethink his sexuality.

First off, let me start by saying that I actually enjoyed this movie. At least, I enjoyed the end of it. And I enjoyed a good chunk of the middle as well. But there was a lot in this movie that either just didn’t need to be there or shouldn’t have been there because it was straight up offensive.

But let’s start with the stuff that I did like. I liked the relationship between Alex and Elliot. A lot. It was cute. Like, Simon and Blue levels of cute at points. Elliot is such an interesting and fun character and he has a lot of chemistry with Alex. Every scene the two of them were on screen together I was smiling. I would have liked to have even more of them in the movie, because he kind of disappears after the first act and a half and doesn’t show up again until the end.

I also enjoyed a lot of the interactions between Alex and Claire. There were some that were kind of problematic but for the most part, they were pretty cute. And I liked their friendship by the end of the film.

There was also this one line that was handled really well. Claire’s mother has some sort of cancer (a fact that like...never really does anything for the plot of the story? but whatever) and while Claire and Alex are having a fight, she tells Claire, “You can stay mad. But what I do know is...We’re not gonna be on this earth forever. And being angry is an exhausting way to spend your day.” Which is already a pretty good line on its own, I guess. But this line has a lot more weight behind it because Claire’s mother is like, literally dying of cancer so she knows better than anybody that her time is limited. I just think that was handled really well.

Okay, before I address the things I liked about the ending, I want to talk about all of the stuff I didn’t like about this film. And let’s start with the big one. The grandaddy of all issues with this film.

The character of Dell.

Dell is the worst fucking character I have ever had the displeasure of watching on screen. He’s completely unsympathetic, he’s an asshole, lowkey homophobic, transphobic, self-centered, all around a terrible human being. Absolutely the worst. I would have given this movie 4 or 5 stars if this character did not exist. Straight up.

Let’s break down all of the terrible shit this character says and does in this movie:

When Claire tells Alex’s friends that they haven’t had sex yet, he tells Alex that he’s just “lost his dick.” Basically saying he’s not a man anymore because his girlfriend just, idk said a thing about them that’s true? I mean I guess it’s their private life and she shouldn’t have been blabbing about that but like for one is it really that big of a deal? Anyway, insinuating that he’s less of a man by saying that he no longer has a penis is INCREDIBLY transphobic. Because you have to have a penis to be a man, I guess.

He then transitions into homophobic comments, calling Alex gay because he hasn’t had sex with Claire yet. He tries to pass it of as an honest suggestion, but the tone in his voice, the delivery from the actor, it’s really clear that Dell is making fun of Alex for this. Which is beyond fucked up.

That’s not the only problematic stuff he says, either. This kid says a BUNCH of fucked up shit. Like SO much. I’m gonna do my best to try and summarize it but it’s a LOT:

He has this whole scene where he basically makes fun of trans and non-binary people, poking fun at this genderqueer character by calling them out and saying, “Hey, Sidney. Are you into vagina or dick?” “I’m attracted to the person.” Whatever the fuck that means.” 

In the same scene, when Alex tells him he might be bi, he decides to whip out his dick and show Alex, and when Alex reacts negatively to seeing the unsolicited penis of a person he does not consider himself attracted to, Dell insinuates that see he can’t be bi because he’s clearly not into dick. There are so many things wrong with that? First, you don’t just randomly whip your dick out to people, that’s just not a thing you do, Dell. That’s literally sexual harassment. Second, just because somebody is gay or bi or whatever doesn’t mean that they’re into fucking everybody of that gender. Third, genitals does not equal gender. Somebody who identifies as gay doesn’t necessarily have to be attracted to penis genitalia specifically. Because not everybody who is a boy has a penis, and not everybody who has a penis is a boy. It’s honestly just remarkable how homophobic and transphobic this movie about gay characters can really be. (And people think this is better representation than Love, Simon??? But I’ll come back to that.)

He also makes an offhand comment about the fucking NAMBLA (North American Man/Boy Love Association, aka a pedophile organization), but I’m not even going to get into that.

There’s also this really pointless and painfully unfunny subplot, I guess if you could call it that, where Alex’s friends get this exotic frog that acts as a psychedelic if you lick it. Dell licks it, and then promptly loses the frog, and spends the rest of the party tripping balls. And it just leads to interruptions of genuinely sweet scenes with Alex and Elliot with scenes of Dell tripping out and hallucinating and shit. It was kind of funny the first time when he made an offhand comment about a singing garden hose and then it showed a yodeling hose animatronic. But after that it’s just painful. Really painful.

There are some other smaller problems I had with the movie, just some weird awkward lines and things that I didn’t necessarily like their inclusion (Claire keeps telling Alex to shut up while they’re having sex; I think that’s supposed to be funny because he’s babbling but like? Clearly that’s the kind of sexual being that Alex is and she shouldn’t try to put that down???? Communication is important in sex and like it’s about having fun with your partner not these set expectations of what it’s supposed to be like stop watching porn and actually go out and experience something for once anyway I’m rambling) but they don’t really hinder the experience nearly as much as literally every second that Dell is on screen.

Anyway, let’s get into the ending. Because I honestly really liked the ending.

Spoiler alert, but Alex eventually settles on the label of gay. I understand the arguments against this, how he initially identified as bi in the movie and that a) this robs us of potential bi representation, which we are severely lacking and b) it reinforces the stereotype that bisexual is just a stepping stone label to straight or gay, lending to bisexual erasure as a whole. I totally agree with this arguments. But I also try to keep that in the back of my mind while watching it so I can actually just enjoy the gay representation we do get. Those arguments are totally valid, but I don’t think it ruins the movie for me.

Anyway, so the way the movie ends, is Alex falls into a pool chasing after the frog (this literally was so pointless oh my god) and has a flashback to a memory where he got a boner looking at other guys at summer camp and when he comes out of it he realizes he’s gay. Then Claire finds him and he tells her he’s gay. Claire is understandably upset by the fact that her boyfriend of three years was actually gay the entire time, and feels hurt and confused. Eventually, however, they talk about it and they come to an understanding. Claire accepts Alex and accepts the situation, Alex tells her that he does love her. They talk a little bit about attraction and how Alex had been lying to himself for a long time. It’s a really well done scene for the most part (Claire does suggest it’s a phase which aaaaa but like, overall the scene was well-handled).

After that, Claire and Alex stay friends, and form an actual genuine friendship which I think was really neat. Claire is honestly the MVP of this movie because of what she does at the end. So Alex and Claire decide to still go to Prom together, but Claire invites Elliot. And honestly, the movie could have ended there with him and Elliot dancing and I would have been happy, but it actually keeps going for a little bit. Alex kind of freaks out because everybody is staring at him. He runs off to the bathroom and Elliot comes and talks to him, eventually getting upset and hurt by the fact that Alex seems to be embarrassed to be seen with him in public and says he’s going to leave, but Alex ends up swallowing his fear and kissing him on the dance floor in front of everybody (a bit over dramatic but tbh so was the Ferris Wheel scene in Love, Simon so). It then cuts to a really heartwarming scene of Alex and Claire on their webshow where Alex starts to talk about his experiences understanding his sexuality and coming out, and it pans out, showing a bunch of other videos of other people talking about their experiences with their sexualities and coming out and such. (I’ll admit; I got pretty teary-eyed at the end there.)

And that’s Alex Strangelove. A pretty good movie that I feel gets completely and utterly ruined by that one character. Overall I think I liked the good things about the movie as much as I detested the bad, so I give the movie a 3/5 overall.

Now, to address the comparisons to Love, Simon.

There was a tumblr post circulating a little while ago, who I’m not going to name the OP because I don’t want them to get blasted with hate or anything (honestly they’ve probably already gotten a lot for that post even though they explicitly said that it wasn’t a hate on Love, Simon post. Don’t send people hate guys. It’s not cool.) This tumblr post had a few key arguments to it, with the thesis of it being that Alex Strangelove accomplished what Love, Simon couldn’t. What was Love, Simon trying to accomplish that it failed at? Well according to this tumblr post:

Love, Simon does not address sexualities other than “straight” and “gay” whereas Alex Strangelove talks openly about bi, pan, ace, etc.

Love, Simon is lacking in sexual content, taking, in their words “the sex out of sexuality,” whereas Alex Strangelove is a film that deals heavily with the concept of sex

Love, Simon is a very dated movie with how it handles certain things, and Alex Strangelove is a fresh and modern take on the concept of sexuality and discovery.

Okay, first things first. This person is comparing two completely different movies that are trying to accomplish completely different things. Love, Simon is a family movie. Alex Strangelove is most definitely not.

Alex Strangelove sets out to tell a story of discovery, of acceptance of ones self and of others. It is a film about coming to terms with one’s sexuality. Love, Simon is a film not about discovery and acceptance, but courage to speak the truth. Alex discovers more about himself and his sexuality as the film progresses; Simon already knows he’s gay, he accepts it, he just hasn’t felt any desire to actually come out and tell anybody about it.

And side note; but Love, Simon’s lack of sexual content I feel is a good thing. Not only because it’s a family film, but because gay people are often fetishized or sexualized in movies, even movies about gay people (see: the Eating Out series, Another Gay Movie, even indie art films like Shortbus and Call Me By Your Name.) They all deal with sexual relationships between gay characters, and while that’s find because gay people are sexual beings just like straight people are, it’s by no means all we are. And only showing those kinds of relationships as representation is harmful because it only reinforces the stereotype that homosexuality is inherently sexual. This is the reason why gay characters and relationships weren’t allowed on TV or movies, especially in kids programming, for the longest time. It’s why Legend of Korra had to stick an ambiguous confirmation in the last scene of its show, by Willow and Tara from Buffy the Vampire Slayer weren’t allowed to even kiss on screen or confirm that they were in a romantic relationship until they had been together for basically an entire season or two, and it’s why Love, Simon is the first mainstream romantic comedy featuring a gay lead ever. Gay people are too often sexualized by the media and saying that this was a point against Love, Simon is missing the point of the movie entirely, if you ask me.

I think that Alex Strangelove’s purpose is that of teaching teens more about exploring themselves sexually and discovering things about themselves and how that’s natural and okay and how you need to be honest with yourself if you want to truly be happy and free. Love, Simon, in contrast, is a story for people who already have gone through that process, already know who they are, and now just need to learn that it’s okay to be open about that, to tell others, to be your true self. Completely different messages, completely different movies. 

The argument that Love, Simon didn’t accomplish what Alex Strangelove did is inapplicable because they were never trying to accomplish the same task.

Also, the last argument that Love, Simon didn’t give us any lead POC roles, uhhhhh did you watch the movie? Nick and Abby, two of the main leads who appear in all of the promotional material, are black. Bram, the person that Simon ends up with at the end of the movie, is black, and Jewish, and gay. Then there’s also Ethan, another black and gay student at Creekwood, and Ms. Albright, the black drama teacher. And, it’s a very minor role I don’t think he actually even has any speaking lines but Martin’s friend Suraj is Indian. That’s like most of the main cast? But anyway.

Love, Simon and Alex Strangelove. Two good movies (though my preference still lies with Love, Simon) with different goals in mind. Two movies that really can not be compared past the fact that they both deal with gay characters and relationships. This is a similar issue with the seemingly popular comparison between Love, Simon and Call Me By Your Name, the last gay-led movie that became popular. Love, Simon is a romantic comedy about coming out, whereas Call Me By Your Name is a tragic drama about a boy who falls in love with a man and enters an intense, passionate, but not entirely healthy relationship with him. They both have gay leads, but they are by no means comparable otherwise. You wouldn’t compare Titanic to Star Wars, just because they both have straight lead characters, so why would you compare Love, Simon to Alex Strangelove, or Call Me By Your Name or whatever just because they both have gay lead characters. There’s a logical fallacy somewhere in there that I can’t exactly pinpoint because I’m running on three hours of sleep, but yeah.

So that’s my opinion. I know this is a fucking long post and I applaud any of you who read it all the way through. I just wanted to get my thoughts out and hopefully this helps somebody understand both of these movies better. :)