Handsome Devil (2016)

*MINOR SPOILERS*

Rotten Tomatoes: 84%

Box Office: 129 391 USD

My Rating: 3/10

Description: Ned (Fionn O'Shea) attends an all-boys boarding school. He is a bullied gay kid who seems to be the only one in the whole school who doesn't like rugby. Two new people arrive at the school that seems to flip everything on its head: Conor (Nicholas Galitzine), yet another rugby star; and Mr. Sherry (Andrew Scott), the new English teacher. Conor, who is very quiet, is assigned to be Ned's roommate, and even though at first they want nothing to do with each other, they slowly become friends, bonding over their shared love of music.

My Thoughts: If you're looking for the perfect cute queer high school love story... please look somewhere else. What really surprises me is that almost everywhere you look, the reviews for this movie are overwhelmingly positive. Although on the other hand, this is the second movie I've ever seen that made less than Little Italy at the box office. Nevertheless, I was highly disappointed with the story. There were some parts that I enjoyed and thought were sweet, such as when Mr. Sherry assures Conor that "it gets better" or when the rugby team abandons the homophobic coach. However, most of the story felt weak. There was a lot of romantic tension between Ned and Conor, and it heavily hints at the two of them eventually forming a romantic relationship, but they never do. There's only one gay couple in the entire film, and they only appear in two scenes. They don't even behave in any outwardly romantic manner toward each other, and one of them doesn't even have any lines. In a way, it seemed like the filmmakers were perfectly comfortable with depicting queer storylines and characters but drew the line when it came to depicting queer relationships. Another thing is that since Ned is the main character, it's expected that he's a good person. Here's the thing: multiple people threaten to out Conor, especially the bigoted rugby coach Pascal (Moe Dunford), but the person to out him to the entire school ends up being Ned. After that, he gets confused and upset that Conor ran away when the two of them were supposed to sing in the talent show. The only part that's kind of funny is when Ned gets into a fight and throws the lamest punch I've ever seen. I get that it's supposed to show that he's not used to anything physical, but it was a little over the top. Mainstream entertainment still struggles with LGBTQ+ representation and stories, but there are many, many queer movies and shows that are so much better than this. And that's not even mentioning the fact that there's only one woman in the whole movie and no people of colour. Please don't waste your time with this mess.

Best Line: "Did you know lizards can regrow their tails? That's how it was in our school with English teachers. One dies, another grows in his place. No big deal."