Alex Strangelove (2018) poster
2018 · comedy · drama · coming-of-age

Alex Strangelove

Directed by Craig Johnson1h 39m2018
ElsewhereIMDb6.321kRT84%Metacritic62
  • warm
  • brisk
  • gentle
  • redemptive
  • intimate
Movie DNA

Cosy, kinetic, gentle comedy / drama, grounded in texture. Redemptive, intimate, measured, hand-scored across twelve axes of taste.

How every film is hand-scored →

Alex Truelove is on a quest to lose his virginity, an event eagerly awaited by his patient girlfriend and cheered on with welcome advice by his rowdy friends. But Alex, a super gregarious dude, is oddly unmotivated. A magical house party throws Alex into the presence of Elliot, a hunky college guy, who pegs Alex as gay and flirts hard. Alex is taken aback but after a series of setbacks on the girlfriend front he takes the plunge and learns some interesting new facts about himself.

Our read · Alex Strangelove (2018) reads as a cosy, kinetic, grounded comedy · drama · coming-of-age entry — gentle in intensity, intimate in scope, measured in temperature, redemptive in outlook. Hand-scored on twelve axes of taste — mood, pacing, weirdness, hope, stakes, humour, reality, density, warmth, auteur, intensity, and era — with a derived palette drawn from its dominant cinematography.

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The shape of Alex Strangelove

Tonight, this looks like

What watching it is actually like.

You want a sweet teen coming-out comedy with best-friend loyalty and prom payoff.

ends upliftingyou’ll feel glowing aftersteady all the waygrips by minute 8attention 2/5breezes by
Date nightWith friendsSoloWith parentsKids around
Heads-updrug usecringe humiliation

Skip it tonightSkip if awkward virginity panic and party drunk scenes feel too juvenile tonight.

If Alex Strangelove is your film
Love, Simon (2018)
High-school coming-out warmth with friendship as anchor
(unless you want more raunchy honesty)
The Half of It (2020)
Teen identity confusion, loyal friendship, small-town honesty
(if you need louder comedic energy)
Booksmart (2019)
Senior-year friendship tested through chaotic party revelation
(unless female duo focus over boy lead)
DNA · twelve axes

The reading.

Each axis is hand-scored — not derived from votes or genre averages. The marker shows where this film sits; the gradient fill uses the film's own cinematography palette.

Mood · HeavyCosy
Pacing · Slow-burnKinetic
Intensity · GentleExtreme
Weirdness · ConventionalSurreal
Hope · NihilisticRedemptive
Stakes · IntimateEpic
Humour · NoneBroad
Reality · GroundedFantastical
Density · SparseTwisty
Warmth · ColdTender
Auteur · TransparentSignature
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