A mysterious artist and a love triangle are at the center of this high-school comedy, which can’t quite decide whether to be preposterous or sincere.
“Crush,” the debut feature of the director Sammi Cohen, is a cuddly, flimsy teenage comedy about a high-school love triangle. The plot hinges on two secrets: the identity of a mysterious campus artist known only as King Pun (whose oeuvre includes spray-painting the words “nice rack” by the gym’s basketball cart) and the furtive kisses enjoyed by Paige (Rowan Blanchard), a frustrated, love-struck young illustrator who is suspected of being King Pun. Paige’s flames, Gabriela (Isabella Ferreira), a popular flirt, and AJ (Auli’i Cravalho), a tongue-tied enigma, lead the track team. They also happen to be sisters. Paige’s romantic struggle is at once unusual and oddly undramatic — much like the dynamic between her flamboyantly straight best friends, Stacey (Teala Dunn) and Dillon (Tyler Alvarez), who constantly hook up with each other while competing in an election for student body president.
An erratic pace forces “Crush” to breeze past many ideas that never get developed. These include a simmering rivalry between the sisters and a case for the importance of art, which Paige addresses in a rousing speech that is presented as though creative liberation — not sexual liberation — was the movie’s point all along. The scriptwriters, Kirsten King and Casey Rackham, evidently can’t decide whether the film should be sincere — as its endearing leads play it — or preposterous, which it becomes whenever Paige’s mom (Megan Mullally) shows up. At one point, she barges in to reminisce about the time she shagged the lead singer of an Aerosmith cover band.
It is clear from the offset which sibling will win both Paige’s affection and the obligatory climactic smooch. The journey there can drag. More fresh is the movie’s sex-positive empathy, a trait exemplified in one scene by Stacey, who delivers a caveat as she thrusts her peers into a kissing closet: “Since this is 2022, we will not make someone make out if they don’t want to.”
Crush
Not rated. Running time: 1 hour 33 minutes. Watch on Hulu.
Source: Movies - nytimes.com
