Lili Reinhart’s new film might be a teen romance but prepare yourselves, this is no To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before. In a lil sneak peek shared to her Instagram, Reinhart gave us a first look at her new movie Chemical Hearts. The film is based on a YA novel called Our Chemical Hearts by Krystal Sutherland and also stars another moody-teen show actor, Euphoria‘s Austin Abrams. Here’s what we know about the film so far.
The Riverdale actress will play a mysterious new girl in school called Grace Town. She wears baggy clothes and uses a cane to aid her walking, and catches the attention of Henry Page, played by Austin Abrams. When she joins the school newspaper staff that Henry is on, he ends up becoming transfixed and can’t stop thinking about her. (If this sounds like déjà vu, Reinhart’s Riverdale character Betty has an early mission to restart the school newspaper at Riverdale High with Jughead.)
The plot nods to the manic pixie dream girl storylines pioneered in YA novels by John Green, but this movie turns them on their head. The Amazon film is set to show a more realistic, darker side of young love.
“I am not the typical person who loves rom-coms and I don’t necessarily seek romantic movies, but the fact that this is a love story [that’s] also about two individual people in their own journeys I think is beautiful,” Reinhart, explained to EW.
“And young love stories that don’t have happy endings are also stories that need to be told. Chemical Hearts is the kind of movie that portrays young love in a realistic light in the sense that it f—ing hurts sometimes. And oftentimes it does not go the way you want it to. And you can have this idea of someone and they don’t measure up to what you want them to be.”
If you’ve got brain-fatigue from uber-sweet teen rom-coms, Reinhart explains that Chemical Hearts is a way more realistic take on a teen relationship. “This film is different because these two people are struggling and Henry’s projecting what he wants her to be onto her; that’s a more adult topic in romance movies, it happens with like people in their 30s,” she says.
“I mean, it’s hard to watch a movie where the teenagers… end up together, like, ‘Wow, that’s fine. That’s all happy!’ But it doesn’t really leave you with anything because it’s not real. I like movies that leave an impact on you and make you think. That’s life, and that’s more realistic.”
Reinhart says she knew she had to adapt Chemical Hearts immediately after she for the first time—as well as acting in it, she’s also executive producing. “It just made my heart feel full,” she says. “The director, Rich Tanne, and I met in Vancouver when I was filming Riverdale and we talked about what our vision for what the movie should be, and we were really on the same page and thought the same way tonally in what we saw for this movie.”
Based on the official Instagram, this film looks like premium soft-focus teenage emotions. Mark your calendar for Chemical Hearts’ release date of the 21st of August on Amazon Prime Video.
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