Aoyama Haru and Kagaya Kaede have been friends since they were 4 years old, when they began living next door to each other. They are now 24-years-old and still live in the same apartments. Kaede has held feelings for Haru for the past 20 years, but Haru doesn’t seem to realize her feelings for him. She talks about this situation with her childhood friends Iori and Mio and decides to give up on her feelings for Haru. But, it's not easy for Kaede to disconnect her feelings for him. Meanwhile, Iori has liked Kaede since he was an elementary school student. He approaches her. Seeing this, Haru becomes disturbed. In fact, Haru made a promise with Kaede’s late mother and he is honoring it.
This film manages to be simultaneously topical and timeless. Without being preachy, it highlights society’s flawed relationship with tech; insights into the complex ideas of family struggle are expertly dispersed among a perfectly paced and balanced story.
'Don't Make Me Go' is what you would expect, Wally and her father, Max, clash tremendously and don't understand each other. Although, it's very heartwarming.
I didn’t love Expecting Amy, the mini-series following Amy Schumer’s pregnancy, but it brought up a lot of great unspoken side-effects of working and growing a human in America.
World-famous drag queen Trixie Mattel shares a year of her life with the world in this vulnerable and uplifting documentary.
The social issues The Half of it takes on are handled well, between the antagonization brought on to Ellie for her race and the conflict that arises from her being gay. Both aspects of her character are built up over the course of the film and don’t seem abrupt or rushed. The film shows racism towards Ellie and her and father in varying levels, from having her schoolmates specifically address her as "Chinese girl” to the fore mentioned way her Dad is treated due to language barriers. The same can be said about Ellie being a lesbian. While she never truly “comes out” in the narrative, that does not undermine her journey of self-discovery from being meaningful. These ideas aren’t thrust upon the viewer in a preachy manor, the scenarios that occur feel believable given the rural setting. The film presents watchers with problems whom those like Ellie may face, and leaves us to sit with them and reflect.
If your upbringing was anything like mine, where the TV acted as an additional parent- there are so many new stories and perspectives to explore.
