From ‘Chemical Hearts’ to ‘A Walk to Remember,’ stream these 10 sappy teen movies for a good cry
MAYBE you have an antsy teenager at home in need of a way to pass time before the (virtual) school year begins, or you’re just in need of a good cry every now and then.
Whatever the reason, Hollywood has an answer for you. Studios continually release sappy teen movies that appeal to this exact intersection of interests, the latest, starring and executive produced by Lili Reinhart, released Friday on Amazon Prime Video.
That movie, ’Chemical Hearts,’ features the ‘Riverdale’ breakout actress as a high school transfer student with a mysterious secret, suggesting it will fall in line with the likes of ‘ Paper Towns,’ ‘ The Fault in Our Stars’ and other John Green-adjacent adaptations we know and (some of us) love. And it does, to a certain extent. But director Richard Tanne, working off Krystal Sutherland’s young adult novel ‘Our Chemical Hearts,’ tries his best to subvert worn teen tropes by fleshing out his characters’ interior lives.
We’ll let you decide if he was successful. Below, ‘Chemical Hearts’ joins a list of nine other mushy teen movies available to watch on popular streaming platforms.
Amazon Prime Video: Chemical Hearts (2020)
We pretty much covered this one. But it’s worth noting that the main character is not technically Grace Town (Reinhart) but a pretty average kid from New Jersey by the name of Henry Page, played by Austin Abrams, who ‘Euphoria’ fans will remember as Barbie Ferreira’s love interest.
Five Feet Apart (2019) Available through the Showtime add-on, this movie stars another ‘Riverdale’ star, Cole Sprouse, and the always lovely Haley Lu Richardson as a pair of cystic fibrosis patients who fall in love but must remain the titular amount of feet apart in order to preserve their health. (This certainly lands differently in the social-distancing era, huh.) Be warned that “this Velveeta-slathered heap of lukewarm cliche,” as The Washington
Post’s Michael O’Sullivan wrote, is designed for those teens who “have a crush on Cole Sprouse.”
Romeo + Juliet (1996)
Romeo and Juliet, the original star-crossed lovers, got modern makeovers in this unconventional take on the Shakespeare play, streaming through the Starz add-on. (Modern for the 1990s, anyway.) Baz Luhrmann guaranteed his film’s success by casting thenrising stars Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes.
The Spectacular Now (2013) Also streaming through the Showtime add-on, ‘The Spectacular Now’ was a hit among critics who praised the honest performances of leads Miles Teller and Shailene Woodley, as well as director James Ponsoldt’s taste for naturalism.
The coming-of-age story follows popular high school senior Sutter (Teller), who falls for the comparatively shy Aimee (Woodley) as he struggles with alcohol abuse and an absentee parent.
Hulu: Like Crazy (2011) Predating ‘The Sun Is Also a Star’ is another film about immigration policies threatening to separate two people in love.
‘Like Crazy,’ which won the grand jury prize at the Sundance Film Festival, centers on a British exchange student (Felicity Jones) who must leave her American boyfriend (Anton Yelchin) behind after she overstays her visa and is denied re-entry into the United States.
Netflix: All the Bright Places (2020)
This Netflix original follows high school classmates Violet (Elle Fanning) and Theodore (Justice Smith), who get to know one another as they work on a class project about their home state of Indiana.
The film is notable in how it deals directly with mental and emotional health, both Theodore’s own life and in his attempts to cheer up Violet as she copes with the death of her sister.
Before I Fall (2017) Following the ‘Groundhog Day’ template, ‘Before I Fall’ takes place on one repeated day — in this case, the last day ever lived by Samantha (Zoey Deutch), a teenager who dies in a car crash.
The Post’s Ann Hornaday commended director Ry RussoYoung for crafting a ‘delivery system for (adolescents’) life lessons, by way of a movie that balances escapism, candor and ethics with admirable aplomb.’
The Notebook (2004)
You simply cannot put together a list of sappy movies and not include an entry from Nicholas Sparks, king of emotional manipulation. There are multiple available on Netflix — including 2010’s ‘ Dear John,’ starring Amanda Seyfried and Channing Tatum — but top honors go to ‘The Notebook.’
The film, for those still unaware, is told in flashbacks; a man at a nursing home reads aloud from a notebook, narrating the tumultuous 1940s love story of Noah Calhoun (Ryan Gosling), who works at a South Carolina lumber mill, and Allie Hamilton (Rachel McAdams), the 17-year-old heiress he meets at a carnival.
Perks of Being a Wallflower (2012)
Based on the book also written by director Stephen Chbosky, ‘Perks of Being a Wallflower’ focuses on Charlie (Logan Lerman), a reserved teenager unknowingly suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder, as he befriends a group of irreverent classmates ( Emma Watson and Ezra Miller, among others).
Chbosky is sincere and delicate in how he portrays the characters, an empathetic approach captured in the words of Charlie’s English teacher, played by Paul Rudd: “We accept the love we think we deserve.”
A Walk to Remember (2002)
Yes, another Sparks movie. This one tells the love story of North Carolina high schooler Landon Carter (Shane West) and the local minister’s daughter, Jamie Sullivan (Mandy Moore), whom he gets to know after he is caught drinking on school grounds and required to complete community service. After she and Landon begin dating, Jamie reveals she has leukemia.
Both the film and book versions of ‘A Walk to Remember’ were dedicated to Sparks’s sister Danielle, whose fight against cancer inspired them. — The Washington Post