Chemical Hearts

"Chemical Hearts never pretends that getting through teenagerhood is easy or fun. But if Grace and Henry can survive the perils of first love, there’s got to be hope for the rest of us. Reliving all that anxiety makes adulthood in the modern age look better — at least a little."

"Assuaging teenage growing pains like a shot of novocaine administered by a shaky hand, this tender and subdued look around the limbo between adolescence and adulthood might start with a sullen kid trying to save his crush from her darkest secrets, but it never gets swept up in the idea that he actually can."

"Writer and director Richard Tanne (Southside With You, about Barack and Michelle Obama's first date) takes what sounds like a terrible idea and transforms it into a sleek, well-played romance that largely makes the cliches believable."

"A deeply felt teenage melodrama."

"This elaborately contrived story feels as if it has been cobbled together from a dozen others, and it never escapes cliche."

"Adolescence is put forth as the personal and poetic peak of all human existence ... It's a strange, myopic kind of nostalgia."

"Like reflecting on one's own teen years, it's mostly embarrassing."

"At its core, it’s a hopeful tale, one that advocates simply talking as a way of helping navigating your troubles."