New Netflix movie ‘Alex Strangelove’ is a “dirty, unrated older brother to Love, Simon”
June 8, 2018Shot on the heels of Love, Simon, new Netflix movie Alex Strangelove follows similar coming of age themes but with a raunchier focus, promises Writer/director, Craig Johnson. “Well, Alex Strangelove deals much more overtly with sex,” he says. “Whereas Love, Simon is more about a kid who knows who he is but is working on being public and open about it, Alex is a totally confused kid who doesn’t know which way he’s going. We’re a dirty, unrated older brother to Love, Simon.”
Alex Strangelove follows Alex
Truelove, an ordinary, well-rounded high school senior who is about to lose his
virginity to his girlfriend when he meets a handsome gay kid from the other
side of town.
Meeting this new boy sets Alex on “a rollercoaster ride of emotions as he explores his sexual identity and navigates the pitfalls of high school,” according to newnownext.
“It would be tough to do that if we didn’t have an unrated or R-rated movie,” Johnson says. “I wanted that relationship with Claire to be a centerpiece of the movie, because I think it’s true to the experience of so many closeted gay kids in high school, they have that friend or girlfriend they’re dating who is their partner in crime. Alex is in love with Claire, but it’s just this pesky sex thing that screws things up for him. I certainly hadn’t seen that reflected in a mainstream high school movie before. We had some people say, ‘we love this script, can we do this as a PG-13 movie,’ and I was like no, no way, this is a movie about sex and if we’re going to be honest this has to be an R-rated movie. Let’s be real – most teenagers live in an R-rated life. This always had this dirtiness and Netflix, bless their hearts, said we love it, don’t change a word, cast who you want, have fun.”
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