There is a lot of really bad YA content out there. Sure, that’s probably just how it looks to us because we haven’t had a Y next to our A for many years, but there’s a reason why so much YA content fails at the box office or gets canceled after a season. That’s why, when we see a YA offering that actually looks good, we want to make sure people know about it.
The Other Half is essentially a modern telling of Cyrano De Bergerac, or Steve Martin’s Roxanne if you don’t like books. The main difference this time around is that instead of being an ugly guy, writing love letters to help a dim-witted dude get the girl, it’s a nerdy girl who falls for the same woman as the dim-witted dude she’s writing letters for.
The new film comes from director Alice Wu and stars Leah Lewis, Daniel Diemer, and Alexxis Lemire. The Half Of It hits Netflix on May 1st.
Bookish introvert Ellie Chu is perfectly content with her life: watching old movies with her widowed father and ghostwriting papers for her high school classmates to help pay the bills. But her side gig turns personal when lovelorn jock Paul Munsky (Daniel Diemer) hires her to craft love notes to Aster Flores (Alexxis Lemire) — a smart, popular girl out of both their leagues… and Ellie’s own secret crush. Just as the duo’s plan begins to work, a new wrinkle emerges: Ellie and Paul have fallen into a deep friendship neither could have anticipated, giving rise to a surprising love triangle. Written and directed by Alice Wu, THE HALF OF IT is a heartfelt comedy-of-errors about searching for perfect love—and finding yourself in the process.