Josh Boone
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Love Story (1970)
Directed by Arthur Hiller
influenced The Fault in Our Stars (2014)
Plot Visuals Themes
Green’s romantic, heart-aching, heartbreaking, poignant melodrama of two kids on a “star-crossed” course with fate has teen-DNA strands stretching all the way back to antiquity, running from Romeo and Juliet through the classic 1970s tear-jerker Love Story .
Elgort is boyishly handsome (in a way that’s distractingly reminiscent of " Love Story "-era Ryan O’Neal, actually) but never quite radiates the charisma required to keep up with Woodley.
The good old-fashioned tearjerker is a Hollywood tradition stretching past the tear-soaked cheekbones of Debra Winger in Terms of Endearment to Ali McGraw in Love Story and all the way back to the flickering silent tragedies of Mary Pickford.
Which is O.K. Neither was Love Story , or A Walk to Remember , or any of the myriad other tearjerkers that play out in the same fashion.
It goes beyond the absurdity of Ali MacGraw looking adorable moments before her death in the groundbreaking 1970 film “Love Story.”
Move over Love Story and Walk to Remember, there’s a new mildly morbid cry in town.
Five Feet Apart (2019)
Directed by Justin Baldoni
influenced by The Fault in Our Stars (2014)
Plot Themes
Yet another teen weepie in the vein of “The Fault in Our Stars” and its many imitators, “Five Feet Apart” is about two young cystic fibrosis patients who fall in love during hospitalization, even though their romance is stymied by the fact that the rules forbid them coming within six feet of one another because of the danger of potentially fatal cross-infection.
Given its premise (two teenagers dealing with a life-threatening condition fall in love), it's near-impossible and not at all unfair to compare Five Feet Apart to the YA hit The Fault in Our Stars.
Just as emotionally manipulative as fellow teen fare like A Walk To Remember and If I Stay, but less as effective as Me, Earl and the Dying Girl and The Fault in Our Stars, Five Feet Apart is typically schmaltzy and insultingly pedestrian, but, as cinematic history has demonstrated, deliver on exactly what you promise – which is often easier said than done when it comes to film – and you’re likely to end up with a product that’s remotely successful.
Noses blowing and heavy sobs will be heard around the world when Five Feet Apart releases this week, another entry into the odd little subgenre that is Romance Featuring One or More Terminally Ill Characters (whose most popular film is undoubtedly The Fault in Our Stars).
Sure, that nightmarish Paper Towns movie was a disaster, but The Fault in Our Stars practically defined an era.
There was of course "The Fault in Our Stars," "Everything, Everything" and "Midnight Sun" just in the past couple of years, all featuring a love story between two teenagers drawn together by their dire circumstances.
Terminal teens have become fairly common in contemporary young-adult romances, from The Fault in Our Stars (Shailene Woodley has cancer, falls in love with Ansel Elgort), to Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (Olivia Cooke has leukemia, falls in love with Thomas Mann), to Five Feet Apart (Haley Lu Richardson and Cole Sprouse both have cystic fibrosis, fall in love with each other).
To make a movie as good as Babyteeth requires a touch of creative daring, a willingness to take risks and stretch the boundaries of a genre – in this case, the ‘doomed teen’ sub-genre, represented by movies such as Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (2015) and The Fault in Our Stars (2104).
The plot is a Xerox of a Xerox of a Xerox of the rote and routine teen illness stories that have become the norm across the past decade, with Babyteeth playing like an adult, riskier version of The Fault in Our Stars or Restless or Me, Earl, and the Dying Girl.
The Fault In Our Stars (adapted from the wildly popular John Green novel of the same name) led the pack, but others like Me and Earl and the Dying Girl, If I Stay, Five Feet Apart, Midnight Sun, and Everything, Everything were all variations of the same oddly specific trope that raked in the dough at the box office.
From Josh Boone's The Fault in Our Stars to Alfonso Gomez-Rejon's Me and Earl and the Dying Girl to Stella Meghie's Everything Everything , this "boy meets girl with a terminal illness" phenomenon has evolved into something of a genre all to itself, exploring—with different degrees of success and sympathy—falling in love when you are young and dying.
Teens dying young is a recurring theme, from Romeo + Juliet to The Fault in Our Stars .
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl (2015)
Directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon
influenced by The Fault in Our Stars (2014)
Plot Themes
One of the hottest tickets at this year’s Sundance film festival was for a U.S. Dramatic Competition film that entered the event as an under-the-radar offering and ended as the presumptive favorite to win the Grand Jury Prize (and, even more likely, the Audience Award): “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl,” a gorgeously conceived and executed variation on the teen weepie that recalls “ Rushmore ” and references Werner Herzog while sharing emotional DNA with “ The Fault in Our Stars .”
The story of a high-school senior forced to befriend a classmate who has just been diagnosed with leukemia, and the sincere, nonsexual connection that forms as a result (sorry, “The Fault in Our Stars,” but there’s no nookie here), this rousing adaptation of Jesse Andrews’ novel is destined not only to connect with young audiences in a big way, but also to endure as a touchstone for its generation.
Stealing many of its visual cues from Wes Anderson and borrowing liberally otherwise from the likes of its fellow recent YA adaptations “The Perks of Being a Wallflower” and “The Fault in Our Stars,” “Me and Earl” unquestionably would have starred Michael Cera, had it been made 5 or 6 years earlier.
Though Me And Earl And The Dying Girl is a sop to film buffs, with references ranging from Burden Of Dreams to Taxi Driver and beyond, the nearest point of comparison for its cancer story is The Fault In Our Stars , which is less hip, but more honest and moving about the “grenade”-like effect that caring for a terminal child can have on those around her.
The prospect of a Sundance-wowing indie take on the themes of The Fault in Our Stars or Now Is Good sounds irksome beyond words, but Alfonso Gomez-Rejon’s very likable film confounds both expectations and prejudices.
One senses he knows that people are just waiting for these two kids to have a love story akin to The Fault in Our Stars or any other entry in the teen-movie pantheon, so the filmmaker frames shots where Greg and Rachel are on opposite sides of the room as they enjoy some of their most important connecting moments.
“The New Mutants” relies on audiences being too young to get the references; they won’t necessarily pick up on the idea that he’s stolen the premise from “It” and “Nightmare on Elm Street 3: Dream Warriors” and “Young Sherlock Holmes,” in which a small group of young people face terrifying projections of their worst fears.
You can tell “The New Mutants” is desperately trying to find its place in the world, when the film was made in 2016 (orginally scheduled to come out in 2018 but then underwent supposed “reshoots” to make it scarier because “It” was a huge success) it was pitched as an edgy spinoff akin to “Logan” where Fox and producer Simon Kinberg could eventually mold these characters into a cinematic universe all their own.
The movie isn’t even as scary as it could be, a fact that could be explained by the need to maintain a PG-13 rating, but in the end we’re only reminded of recent teen horror ensembles like It that worked much better.
Initially lensed in 2017, it was then reshot to up the horror quotient after the success of Get Out and the first It (and then toned down when it got too supposedly frightening), and further hold-ups were due to Disney’s sale of Fox, the release of Dark Phoenix itself and, but of course, COVID-19.
When Disney took control, it’s clear he’s been forced to downplay those plans (although, bafflingly, actual footage from 2017’s Logan remains in a bizarre vision that genuinely makes no sense), leaving the film stranded as a stand-alone feature with literally no future, despite being loaded with setups that now feel like a complete waste of time.
You can tell “The New Mutants” is desperately trying to find its place in the world, when the film was made in 2016 (orginally scheduled to come out in 2018 but then underwent supposed “reshoots” to make it scarier because “It” was a huge success) it was pitched as an edgy spinoff akin to “Logan” where Fox and producer Simon Kinberg could eventually mold these characters into a cinematic universe all their own.
En esta dirección, llama la atención que Los nuevos mutantes dialogue con otra de las cintas más sólidas del universo Marvel: Logan (James Mangold, 2017) en lo que toca a la pregunta misma por la función heroica.
‘New Mutants’ has its nods to other superhero films – it even uses footage from James Mangold’s 2017 standalone film ‘Logan’ – but once mutants are established, ‘New Mutants’ quickly veers off into its own unique direction.
If this sounds familiar to you, it’s because it was a major plot point of 2017’s Logan, but Boone takes it even further to hammer this home by using the exact same cell phone footage the titular hero watched in Dani’s vision.
After 2016’s disappointing X-Men: Apocalypse and last year’s box office bomb Dark Phoenix , it was clear that the X-Men were losing its stride since Wolverine’s ‘retirement’ in 2017’s Logan .
What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Let’s see, we’ve got Me and Earl and the Dying Girl and The Fault in Our Stars , except nobody is dying here, save for very slowly and eventually, in an existential-dread kind of way.
Whether it’s “The Fault in Our Stars,” or “Five Feet Apart,” crippled teenage romance always sells.
But where the likes of “Paper Towns” and “The Fault in Our Stars” were inflected with a kind of manic pixie dream magic that inspired their characters to save each other or die trying, Richard Tanne’s adaptation of Krystal Sutherland’s YA hit “Our Chemical Hearts” offers a relatively inert take on the same milieu.
Much like previous doomed teen romances The Fault in Our Stars and All The Bright Places , Chemical Hearts is packed full of melodrama.
Words on Bathroom Walls (2020)
Directed by Thor Freudenthal
influenced by The Fault in Our Stars (2014)
Themes Plot
I was reminded at times of The Fault in Our Stars , another YA adaptation about illness with low-key religious themes and a central relationship that morphs from platonic friendship into romance.
Overall, Words is the one of the most gratifying young-adult-novels-turned-films since 2014’s The Fault in Our Stars.
While The Fault in Our Stars received perhaps the widest popularity in its love story centered on terminally ill teens, the genre was at its finest with The Hate U Give ‘s youth-centered examination of racism and police brutality.
Yes, Plummer and Russell are a cute, screwball-esque, cine-literate couple (they bond over Drew Barrymore rom-com Never Been Kissed and Adam likes to draw comparisons between his life and Will Hunting’s) a la those featured in The Fault in Our Stars , Five Feet Apart and the like, but there are complications to their lives that these kind of movies don’t always explore.
All the Bright Places (2020)
Directed by Brett Haley
influenced by The Fault in Our Stars (2014)
Themes
Though we do get a glimpse of those bustling high school classrooms, Netflix’s new original film All the Bright Places instead falls somewhere between The Fault in Our Stars and Me and Earl and the Dying Girl , at the rather more melancholy end of the genre.
Adapted by Jennifer Niven and Liz Hannah from Niven’s bestselling young adult novel, Haley’s feature contains all the necessary ingredients for success that films like “The Fault in Our Stars” and its ilk have — undeniably cute leads adept at conjuring cheers and tears, a solid soundtrack and a pass-the-tissues third act — yet its pure beating heart and humanistic undertones make it somewhat of a standout.
What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: The Fault in Our Stars is also a weepie, and also a YA adaptation, and also put a young actress of impressive skill — Shailene Woodley — in the lead, all the better to wave the red cape in front of the charging bull of your tears.
For connoisseurs of the genre, the vibe here falls somewhere between “The Fault in Our Stars” and “After.”
Romeo and Juliet (1968)
Directed by Franco Zeffirelli
influenced The Fault in Our Stars (2014)
Themes
The concept of doomed love is as old as "Romeo and Juliet," by William Shakespeare, who is also responsible for the film's title.
Which is O.K. Neither was Love Story , or A Walk to Remember , or any of the myriad other tearjerkers that play out in the same fashion.
In adapting the story of the star-crossed romance between two teenage cancer victims, screenwriters Scott Neustadter and Michael H Weber plainly know they have an uphill battle to avoid being tarred with the same schmaltzy brush as previous entries in the sub-genre (Nicholas Sparks adaptation A Walk to Remember being the dubious prototype).
Say Anything... (1989)
Directed by Cameron Crowe
influenced The Fault in Our Stars (2014)
Plot Themes
But "The Fault in Our Stars" isn't just a cry-a-minute film for teens looking for an emotional connection beyond SnapChat, and early on, 17-year-old heroine Hazel Grace Lancaster (Shailene Woodley) shares that her story isn't like "Say Anything" either.
But a movie that positions itself as “the truth” takes a certain risk—especially as it raises the specter of the beloved Say Anything, where a Peter Gabriel song does fix everything.
Like “Say Anything,” “The Fault in Our Stars” is going to become a weepy rite-of-passage movie for this generation of young filmgoers.
Everything, Everything (2017)
Directed by Stella Meghie
influenced by The Fault in Our Stars (2014)
Themes
Filmmakers attempting to break into the teen drama / romance genre seem destined to fail, mostly because of the candid authenticity of movies that came before like “The Fault in Our Stars” and “The Spectacular Now.” Whereas these films get almost everything right where coming-of-age adolescent angst is concerned, the plot for “Everything, Everything” feels like it’s filled with a watered-down insincerity.
The Fault in Our Stars (2014) was such a huge hit that you knew other sick teen romantic dramas would follow, even if you were unaware of what books were out there to inspire the screenplays.
It’s lacking the star-studded cast of “The Fault in Our Stars,” though Stenberg and Robinson are charming and comfortable onscreen.
Well, it’s been around for some time with movies like “The Fault in Our Stars,” “Me and Earl and the Dying Girl,” “A Walk to Remember,” and “The Space Between Us.” Now we get EVERYTHING, EVERYTHING, and teenagers who have no interest in “Alien: Covenant” this weekend can go to this and have a good cry.
“The Fault in Our Stars” meets “Room” in “Everything, Everything,” a confounding psychological drama masquerading as a cutesy teen love story.
Quite obviously appealing to the same crowd that flocked to see “The Fault in Our Stars” or “Me and Early and the Dying Girl,” “Everything, Everything” does everything in its power to the win the sympathies of its audience.
Me Before You (2016)
Directed by Thea Sharrock
influenced by The Fault in Our Stars (2014)
Themes Plot
Louisa and Will are older than the teen couples in The Fault in Our Stars and If I Stay — she’s in her mid-twenties, and he’s in his early thirties — but the film is very much a continuation of the recent resurgence in teary romances, in which hearts are more stalwart than the bodies in which they reside, and love collides with mortality so hard that whole forests’ worth of tissue aren’t enough to dry the audience’s eyes.
Like the (better) 2014 tearjerker "The Fault in Our Stars," this film version, directed by Thea Sharrock, probably is a slam dunk for the book's fans, who will likely be crying from the first scene.
Moyes adapts her own work, which probably helps, but the tragic romance doesn’t produce those wracking sobs like The Fault in Our Stars did or have enough off-beat humor like Me and Earl and the Dying Girl.
This, too, is the kind of medical misfortune that movies like to throw at young lovers, whether it’s cancer in “The Fault in Our Stars” or the vaguely defined illness in “Love Story.”
But weep porn does what weep porn must, even though—unlike my excessive waterworks during "The Fault in Our Stars"—I found no need to dip into the promo Kleenex handed out at my screening.
To fans of John Green's The Fault In Our Stars, Me Before You might seem like a more grown-up version of the same story, thanks to its similar themes of living for today while accepting death.
Fans of the book won’t love the quickened pace onscreen but will appreciate the book’s pop culture references in set props – a V for Vendetta poster on Augustus’ bedroom wall, the Hectic Glow on Hazel’s.
Screenwriters Scott Neustadter and Michael H. Weber have remained faithful to John Green’s New York Times best seller, so much so that the only thing its hard-core fans can really take issue with is the fact that Shailene Woodley did not shave her head to make cancer-stricken heroine Hazel Grace look like Natalie Portman in “V for Vendetta” as Mr. Green had limned.
He has a “V for Vendetta” film poster over his bed, but we won’t hold that against him.
I Still Believe (2020)
Directed by Andrew Erwin
influenced by The Fault in Our Stars (2014)
Plot Themes
Notwithstanding its real-life origins, I Still Believe is framed as something of an evangelical answer to the dying-girlfriend teen drama The Fault in Our Stars , from the copycat movie poster (a high-angle medium close-up of the lovers lying with their heads together, each upside down to the other) to the recurring star motif.
In fact, were the religiousness of the film not so overt, it could easily fit into the box of other recent ill-fated young romances like The Fault in Our Stars and Me Before You .
In a third act that riffs on everything from “Love Story” to “The Fault in Our Stars,” Jeremy takes his pain and converts it into something useful: his music.
We’ve seen it many a time, from “Love Story” to “A Walk to Remember” to “The Fault in Our Stars” to “Midnight Sun.”
This love story has the heart swells of The Notebook , the unexpected twists of a Nicholas Sparks novel, and the anguish of The Fault in Our Stars : The proof is your depleted tissue box.
Many remember that The Jazz Singer was the first movie to use sync-sound in a big release, but few would actually torture themselves with a view of Al Jolson’s hideous minstrelsy in order to truly witness what would have been one of the most pivotal developments in cinema as we know it.
History Is Made at Night (1937)
Directed by Frank Borzage
influenced The Fault in Our Stars (2014)
Visuals
In unintentional design, the film is like Frank Borzage (“History is Made at Night”) meets Cameron Crowe (you know that guy), and I can’t resist a line like “I fell for him the way you fall asleep, slowly and all at once” when it is delivered with open, unabashed, pluperfect Grace.
The Hate U Give (2018)
Directed by George Tillman Jr.
influenced by The Fault in Our Stars (2014)
Characters Themes
From The Fault in Our Stars to The Hunger Games, girls have grown up inspired by the bravery of heroines fighting danger both ordinary and fantastical, through role models like the loving cancer patient Hazel Grace Lancaster (Shailene Woodley) or overnight warrior Katniss Everdeen (Jennifer Lawrence).
After something of a comeback with the serious blockbusters “The Fault in Our Stars” (2014) and “Paper Towns” (2015), the genre has gone in a somewhat lighter direction this past year with “Love, Simon” and Netflix’s star-making “To All The Boys I’ve Loved Before.”
So many young adult adaptations fall short of expectations, but this one is up there with The Perks of Being a Wallflower and The Fault in Our Stars .
It’s impossible not to compare him to Ryan Gosling’s effectiveness in 2004’s romantic gem “The Notebook” with Rachel McAdams.