Netflix's The Half of It Is a Sweet, Queer Take on Cyrano De Bergerac

Saving Face director Alice Wu helms the story of an unlikely friendship between a queer teen and the lovable jock who hires her to pen a letter to his crush.

Tracy E. Gilchrist

Tracy E. Gilchrist is the VP of Editorial and Special Projects at equalpride. A media veteran, she writes about the intersections of LGBTQ+ equality and pop culture. Previously, she was the editor-in-chief of The Advocate and the first feminism editor for the 55-year-old brand. In 2017, she launched the company's first podcast, The Advocates. She is an experienced broadcast interviewer, panel moderator, and public speaker who has delivered her talk, "Pandora's Box to Pose: Game-changing Visibility in Film and TV," at universities throughout the country.

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Tracy E. Gilchrist

April 09 2020 4:12 PM EST

April 09 2020 4:27 PM EST

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In the upcoming Netflix film The Half of It, high school student Ellie Chu (Leah Lewis) is renowned for her prowess with the pen -- at least in terms of writing her classmates' papers for them as a side gig. But when sweet football jock Paul (Daniel Diemer) propositions her to craft a letter to his crush, Aster (Alexxis Lemire), Ellie soon discovers how deep her crush on the object of his affection goes.

Meanwhile, when Ellie's not spending her free time watching classic Hollywood cinema with her father and minding the train that comes through the station outside their house, she and Paul navigate the nuances of their unlikely friendship.

The film is a modern take on the playwright Edmond Rostand's Cyrano de Bergerac, but it's also culled from director Alice Wu's friendship with a straight male best friend who helped her come to terms with her gay identity and the emotional intimacy they shared.

The movie is Wu's return to filmmaking after about 15 years. Her beloved first feature, 2004's Saving Face, explored the intersections of Chinese American and lesbian identities.

"So here I am, staring down the barrel of mid-life, having just made a movie about teenagers. Now that it's done, I can see a few things more clearly," Wu wrote in her director's letter. "For one: I used to think there was only one way to love. That A plus B minus C equals Love. Now that I'm older, I see there are more. So many more ways to love than I had ever imagined."