Did you know that teenagers have intense emotions? If this comes as news, you may be in the target demographic for this YA drama, with Lili Reinhart as a high-school senior who has suffered a traumatic loss and Austin Abrams as the love-struck guy who helps her come back from it.
For anyone over 20, Chemical Hearts will land as a better-than-average version of an obvious story. It leans into all the tropes of the teens-facing-life-and-death genre, from the poetry they read to the clumsy sex to awkward texts.
Writer and director Richard Tanne (Southside With You, about Barack and Michelle Obama's first date) takes what sounds like a terrible idea and transforms it into a sleek, well-played romance that largely makes the cliches believable..
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