Aviator sunglasses? Check. Bucket hat? Check. Self-inflicted shag haircut? Check. Awkward and misunderstood, seventeen-year-old AJ (Nell Barlow)—formerly April, as her mom (Jo Hartley) insists on calling her—narrates her holiday by the coast in Marley Morrison’s coming-of-age film, Sweetheart. AJ overanalyzes everything and dishes out harsh observations (as teenagers are wont to do) throughout her family’s vacation.
But beyond the family bickering and inevitable teenage malaise, AJ encounters and falls for Isla (Ella-Rae Smith), a luminous lifeguard. (“I don’t think I’ve ever looked that happy in my life,” AJ observes.) As melancholy and sweet as its title suggests, Sweetheart belongs in film collections that cater to an adolescent audience, alongside coming-of-age and LGBTQ+ narratives and independent pictures.
Accompanied by her precocious little sister Dayna (Tabitha Byron) and pregnant older sister Lucy (Sophia Di Martino), Lucy’s receptive boyfriend Steve (Samuel Anderson), and the girl’s sometimes condescending—but trying nonetheless—mother Tina (Hartley), AJ exhibits genuine teenage malaise while her family enjoys themselves. She expresses annoyance and exasperation at the least bit of pretense, including polite niceties and friendly smiles. And then she sees Isla.
Despite her initial appraisal of Isla—“Girls like her are exactly what’s wrong with the world,” she thinks—AJ’s strong, negative reaction only camouflages what she really feels: attraction. Based on appearances and some offhand remarks, AJ decides that “girls like [Isla] like boys,” but tentatively accepts Isla’s friendship. (Out of loneliness or hope? Both?) They’re a standard case of opposites attract: Isla wears sundresses, AJ wears Bermuda shorts. AJ fumbles through social interactions, Isla radiates charisma. Throughout their holiday-long relationship, AJ repeatedly self-sabotages herself, rejecting any potential for romance and instead picking fights with the object of her affection. Much like in her tense familial relationships, AJ pushes Isla away at every chance.
Perhaps equally as universal as the budding friendship and potential holiday romance between AJ and Isla, the tense mother-daughter dynamic between Tina and AJ is based on something relatable to most parents and young adults: they’re too similar to each other. Tina argues with AJ over her haircut, her chosen name, her sleep schedule, her unrealistic post-school plans (a gap year volunteering with elephants in Indonesia)… pretty much every obligatory behavior of moody teenagers. But their strained relationship goes beyond these petty arguments and is best summed up when Tina asks, “Why are you so angry?” To which AJ explodes, “Because you don’t understand!”
Sweetheart is cute and awkward, like a Hawaiian shirt-festooned AJ, but the film’s coming-of-age story taps into something that anyone who has survived adolescence can understand: a longing for acceptance, whether within the bounds of friendship, romance, or family. And not acceptance at the price of sacrificing your own personality, but acceptance for you just as you are, even in the prickly years between childhood and adulthood. (Maybe especially then!) But sometimes to find that acceptance, we have to get out of our own way, as AJ learns.
Unfortunately, for a film marketed as a comedy/drama, the screenplay doesn’t provide many laughs outside of AJ’s jaded observations. The story bounces along from family meals to parties to make-outs to shouting matches without eliciting much mirth from the audience, slowing down the film's pace despite a relatively short runtime. (If you’re looking for an LGBTQ+ teen comedy, this isn’t Bottoms.) But for what Sweetheart lacks in humor, it makes up for with plenty of heart.
“I’m seventeen, there’s nothing wrong with me,” AJ admonishes before projectile vomiting on her older sister’s Jimmy Choos. With Sweetheart, writer and director Marley Morrison gives young adult audiences a soft place to land in a sea of cynical and absurd media by embracing and respecting AJ’s reality as a gay teenager just trying to find her place in the world.
Media librarians who cater to adolescent audiences will want to add Sweetheart to their shelves and include it in their programming for young adults and related LGBTQ+ groups. Despite a rather humorless script, AJ, with a vulnerable and bold performance from Nell Barlow, rightfully claims her place in the teen movie protagonist pantheon, making a little more room for queer girls alongside the likes of Lady Bird and Cher Horowitz.
What type of library programming could use this title?
Libraries could use Sweetheart in programming for teens and for gay student groups, such as a Gay-Straight Alliance. It would fit in on a bill with teen romances like Love, Simon, or coming-of-age stories like Pariah or Booksmart.
Does this film have Public Performance Rights available?
Public Performance Rights are available for Sweetheart through its distributor, Film Movement.
What ages would this film be suitable for?
Sweetheart would be suitable viewing for teenagers and up, and possibly pre-teens with adult guidance due to frequent cursing, underage partying, and mild sexuality.