A friendship grows deep
“Something more” is that well-worn phrase applied to close friendships when latent attraction seems on the cusp of manifesting. For teenagers, it's even more loaded, because life in general can feel like it hasn't happened yet.
It's that sense of adolescent life as a perpetual state of what could be that gives writer-director Aitch Alberto's adaptation of Benjamin Alire Sáenz's treasured YA novel “Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe” its sweet, simmering dramatic tension, as the lonely, bonded Mexican American teenage boys of Sáenz's late'80s-set story navigate a closeness neither knows how to fully process beyond the joy inherent in a world-expanding connection.
The developing friendship is between brooding El Paso high-schooler Aristotle (Max Pelayo), and nice, colorfully attired classmate Dante (Reese Gonzales), who is eager share his love of art, music, literature and the night sky's glistening wonder. To know the direction this is all headed in doesn't make “Aristotle and Dante” predictable. Though this fictional love story is not untouched by the kind of violence that continues to threaten LGBTQI visibility everywhere, “Aristotle and Dante” is distinguished by its atmosphere of compassion in which expression thrives. In a lovely way, it feels like this coming-of-age movie's own “something more.”
Details: Rated PG-13 (some strong violence, strong language, sexual material, teen drug/alcohol use, thematic elements, smoking); 1 hour, 36 minutes; playing in select Bay Area theaters.