Tag Archives: wheres the money

Alex Strangelove

Alex Strangelove is a high school coming of age story of a young teen trying to find his identity. Alex Truelove struggles to come to terms with his sexuality as pressure from his parents, friends, and classmates make life confusing.

The movie itself is awkward, but in a good way. It does a good job depicting the awkward time that is high school. It’s confusing, it’s stressful, it’s scary and you get to experience all these emotions along with Alex. As a coming of age story, it works. I am not sure how it well it works as a coming out story, but I enjoyed it non the less.

It isn’t your traditional high school movie, at least not the one I expected. It has moments where it is quirky, but it doesn’t overdo it. For example, the relationship between Alex and Claire is fun and sweet. The characters are bubbly and they have great chemistry but they do not get annoying. Although I didn’t care for the animal documentary bits. Most importantly, this feels like high school and not what some old guy think’s high school is.

And this movie is stressful, because high school is stressful. There is the stress of trying to get into a good school. The waiting, wondering if he will get into Columbia. There is the pressure from his peers to fit a certain category and Alex, like most teens, doesn’t know what that category is. There is also the pressure of being in school. Getting good grades all while trying to have a social life. Alex has to find the balance between his friends, his love, his family and a school, and that is a lot.

I recommend this movie. It’s funny, it’s cute, and does a really good job at telling a story. It’s probably the first Netflix original movie that I’ve liked a lot and definitely worth checking out, even if you are curious. I rate this movie a 9 out 10.

Where’s the Money (2017) Review

Where’s The Money (2017) comes to us from director Scott Zabielski. The film is a heist comedy staring Andrew Bachalor as Del. The movie starts off giving you context of the economic inequality that exists in South Central LA. You get introduced to the main character, Del, who lives in a struggling boxing Gym. You also get introduced to his friend Juice, played by Allan Maldonado, and the love interest Alicia, played by Kat Graham. After receiving a call from his father who was imprisoned for bank robbery, he learns the location of his father’s 1-million-dollar stash. Del and the other main characters become determined to find the money but discover the house where the money is stashed was turned into a frat house. Now, Del with the help of his friends must infiltrate the house and pretend to be a student trying to rush the frat. The rest of the movie turns into a frat comedy where we get to see Del participate in the hazing process while trying to get the money out of the house.

This movie works for the most part. Although not all of the jokes land, I got some good laughs out of it. It does try to address issues about racial inequality and racism. They briefly insert jokes about gingerfication for example. There is a scene where the frat boys are dressed like the clan. But they mostly joke about triggers, specifically what white people can say around black people. Although some of it did get a laugh, it doesn’t always work, and it gets a bit repetitive. It is stuff that has been done before.

The love interest plot line was a bit forced. There was no chemistry between the two characters and the only reason that they end up together (spoilers) is because it was written so. I didn’t really care for that plotline as the scenes where they are flirting and together aren’t funny and just drag.

The plot is generic. It isn’t bad, you can get one good viewing of it but I wouldn’t watch it again. It is forgettable if anything, I probably wont even remember what it’s about a month or even a week from now. Some of the jokes don’t land and they will stay on that joke for way too long and although it’s only an hour and thirty minutes, it will feel a bit longer. The second half in particular feels longer because it stops being as funny. The jokes are tired, they will make sure you know that Jake Paul is from Youtube and resolution is lacking.

Overall, I’ve seen worse. It isn’t a bad sit at all so if you are bored, definitely go for it. It won’t hold up the second time around though as the plot is really basic and the jokes are easy. Ill give this a 6 out 10 because it does work, and I found parts that were funny, but I won’t be adding this to my favorites.