Scribbling on the movie: Alex Strangelove (2018)
The Self-Discovery Story of a Young Man Confused About His Sexual Identity
The other day (June 30th), which is now July 2nd, I came across the movie while browsing Netflix. I have a weakness for teen movies, I love watching them. As long as they don’t get too ridiculous, they never bore me. I came across Alex Strangelove when I was looking for a teen movie to watch, so I watched it. In this article, I’m going to write a little bit about the movie and what the movie touches on. This article is not exactly a review, but I’m reviewing the movie as the basis of the article :)
While Alex Strangelove seems to start with the problems of young people, which are now commonplace in youth films (and I don’t claim that it is detached from real life), we are actually accompanied by a character, Alex Truelove, who is not so commonplace (we usually see him as a side character, not as a leading character).
Alex is a young man who has not yet experienced sexuality among young people who are comfortable or seem to be comfortable with issues such as sexuality; he also has reservations about it. We see that he is uncomfortable with the fact that he feels under pressure in this regard, and we see that he sets his mind on this situation and we start to guess the flow of the movie slowly. At this point, the character of Elliot enters the movie and we realize that a different movie flow will greet us than we thought. The movie focuses on Alex’s sexual identity confusion.
The movie approached the subject in a realistic way, which I didn’t expect. I liked the fact that the treatment was not exaggerated. The character’s confusion was well conveyed, and the acceptance phase was also very well handled. I mean, looking at the movie in general, it’s not hard to say that people who actually experience this situation can act like the character in the movie. I think this point is important.
It is a sad situation for those who lose themselves in the impositions of society to find themselves in such confusion. Although some homosexuals have been aware of this since childhood and continue their lives, the situation is quite different when it comes to heterosexuals. Because in general, homosexuals also think that they are hetero, but as they discover and get to know themselves better, they realize who they are. But what about those who cannot discover? They grow up thinking they are straight, just like our character Alex in the movie. In adolescence, when the pressures that young people put on each other begin, discovery is even closer, because not being ourselves makes us feel uneasy. Of course, at the same time, the realization of puberty brings more confusion because puberty is already a confusion in itself, and adding the confusion of sexual identity on top of that makes things more difficult. Even though the discovery is imminent, this confusion is very scary to the eye. In the movie, we see Alex in the midst of this confusion and fear.
All in all, I thought Alex Strangelove was a fun and enjoyable movie. Instead of skimming over the plot, it touched on most of the real points with appropriate touches. I recommend the movie and wish a good time to those who will watch it.
See you in the next “Scribbling on the Movie”!
