Amazon Prime Review – Chemical Hearts (2020)
The young adult sub-genre – YA for you cool kids – has had some definite peaks and troughs since it came in like a juggernaut a decade or so ago. Its peaks have ranged from vampire/werewolf/human love triangles in Twilight and its subsequent sequels, melodrama tragedy The Fault in our Stars, and, of course, The Hunger Games, which fell foul of the studio “let’s split this in two and reap the benefits” syndrome. But, for every success, many failures followed whether the Divergent series, The Giver, The Host, The 5th Wave. Countless other pretenders have come and gone but in recent years, there has been a bit of a renaissance.
Driven by Netflix’s To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before and All The Bright Places, as well as Five Feet Apart and Ready Player One, there has been an upwards trend with a new decade seemingly reigniting supply and demand. Chemical Hearts, the latest off the assembly line so to speak, joins the ever-increasing ranks this week that thinks it is bringing something fresh to the table, a new, deeper take on the realms of teenage angst and all its pain and glory, but for all its chutzpah it is another retread 
through the familiar that is both monotonous and uninspired.
It focuses on Henry (Austin Abrams), a teen attending a local New Jersey school who dreams of being editor-in-chief and has his heart set on being head of the school newspaper for his final year. As he begins his first day determined to land the gig, he happens upon Grace (Lili Reinhart), a transfer student who catches our Romeo’s eye after he sees her reading Pablo Neruda poetry and believes he may finally have found someone on his level. But Grace isn’t all she seems and after their relationship begins to become stronger, Henry begins to learn of her tragic life before her transfer but can’t shake his feelings for her, no matter where their future lies.
As its title suggests, Chemical Hearts tries to dive deep into the period of adolescence and all its turbulence by thinking about the impact it has our brains and, by extension, our body chemistry. Young love, school pressures, and puberty take their toll on our bodies – not to mention the stress and anxieties that come from 21st-century adolescence – and director Richard Tanne uses this as the backbone of the film.
And while there are some interesting discussions around this which provide some genuine moments, as well as its kaleidoscopic analysis of these “chemical reactions”, its uniqueness fades quickly into cliches and stereotypical narratives, an even bigger shame given that both Abrams and especially Reinhart are both excellent in the lead roles. It’s a road well travelled and despite its best intentions, this one soon finds itself struggling to divert away from it.
★★
Drama, Romance | USA, 2020 | 15 | 21st August 2020 | Amazon Prime | Dir.Richard Tanne | Lili Reinhart, Austin Abrams, Sarah Jones, Kara Young, Coral Peña, C.J. Hoff, Bruce Altman.
Discover more from
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.
About the Author
