Chemical Hearts premiered on 21st August 2020 on Amazon Prime Video. The film is written, directed, and produced by Richard Tanne and is based on the novel Our Chemical Hearts by Krystal Sutherland. The film stars Austin Abrams and Lili Reinhart in the lead.
Being a Teenager is Often Painful and Confusing
“You are never more alive than when you’re a teenager. Your brain is flushed with chemicals that can turn your life into a story of epic proportions. An A-minus feels like the Pulitzer, a lonely Saturday night is an eternity of solitude…” – Henry.
A lot of times, in the name of teenage movies, we are served with films that are not just weird but represent the teenage world with nothing more than joy and candies. And numerous times I have felt the need to ask people – Why do they think that teenagers have no problems other than cheesy love?
Chemical Hearts is one such movie where I found the closest representation of teenage life – their pain, trauma, fears, confusion, feelings, and more, all in one single movie drafted with the perfect amount of affection and distance. Henry is the driving force of the movie, we see him feel and break but we never truly get to enter Grace’s world.
While this might have failed the movie, the insight we get into Grace’s life is enough for us to know her pain in lengths due to which we can sympathize with her. Henry and Grace’s characters are built on the pillars of true emotions which are hard to escape.
“Adults are just scarred kids who were lucky to make it out of limbo alive,” – Grace.
Adulting is not easy but whoever said crossing the teenage limbo is easy needs a reality check. The film does not pretend or try to show the teenage world as a fun and easy journey where it’s all about parties or relationships.
It shows that there’s more to life than that – it shows the pain of losing a beloved, the fear of moving on and holding back, the broken poetry, and most importantly, the teenagers who are adulting with nothing more than pressure and scars.
Stream It or Skip It
“There’s a reason why when every author, from Shakespeare to Salinger, writes about young people, they can’t avoid the truth, that being young is so painful, it’s almost too much to feel.” – Grace.
STREAM IT! Love, it’s a chemical reaction that comes and goes but the person gradually turns into being a part of you where it becomes hard to let go. Chemical Hearts is one of the best teenage films to watch. It is heartwarming and heartwrenching and brings with itself a little box of true emotions and tears which you just can’t resist but feel.
Chemical Hearts is now streaming on Amazon Prime.
Read our other reviews here.