Unlike other movies, such as “Love, Simon,” “Crush” doesn’t center itself around the process of coming out. Please consider giving today.īut regardless of its pitfalls, the true beauty of “Crush” comes in the form of its queer storytelling. The Spectrum has been covering the University at Buffalo since 1950, your donation today could help #SaveStudentNewsrooms. In particular, the relationship between Paige’s mother and coach can be groan-inducing with its silly sexual jokes that are too corny for a teenage audience and too childish for adults. The film’s humor also often falls short of what would be considered funny and encroaches on cringey.
Rather, Blanchard’s Paige often comes across as a tad annoying and immature, especially in comparison to the film’s consistently enjoyable secondary characters.
Blanchard all too often fails to deliver this likeability. Yet, in the goofiness of the genre, there should reside some kind of charm and endearing quality. The typical rom-com sports a protagonist who is often on the fringes of popularity - a nerdy and awkward outcast type. The weakest part of the movie comes in the form of Blanchard’s performance. Bolstered by the lively chemistry between the cast, the unapologetic gayness of the protagonist and a hunt for an anonymous grafitti artist known as KingPun, “Crush” follows all the classic teenage rom-com tropes, even if its execution can be mediocre at times.
