It just isn’t that big of a deal to this generation-or at least, it shouldn’t be, “Crush” is saying.Īnd that kind of authenticity springs from the fact that so many of the people involved both in front of and behind the camera identify as queer themselves, including the director, writers, and stars Rowan Blanchard and Auli’i Cravalho. The matter-of-fact way they discuss romance in the script from Kirsten King and Casey Rackham is reflective of evolving mores and identities. These teens are here, they’re queer, get used to it, to borrow a decades-old rallying cry.
This is a movie about gay characters in which there is no hiding in the closet, no anxiety over coming out, no fear of condemnation from parents or ignorant classmates. The quirky outsider pines secretly for the most popular kid, the students have a zippy way with words that suggests a wisdom beyond their years, and everyone-regardless of their status on the social hierarchy-gets wasted at the kind of mansion rager that probably never occurred in your own youth.īut despite the familiar settings and tropes in director Sammi Cohen’s debut feature film, “Crush” feels refreshingly contemporary. The high school rom-com “ Crush” plays like a queer version of a John Hughes movie.
