If you happened to see "The Half Of It" pop up on your Netflix account and brushed it off as another formulaic teen rom-com, good golly I encourage you to give this 105-minute rollercoaster a chance. The movie centers on a student, who makes a living writing essays for her peers, changing her formatting to writing love letters to help a football player woo a girl whom, secretly, they both want. What can I say? I'm a sucker for a flick with some obvious metafiction, representation, motifs, and symbolism in my media consumption. Here are some contextless quotes to pique your fancy, until you give this movie the stream it deserves.
1. “Love is simply the name for the desire and the pursuit of the whole.”
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Plato, The Symposium
3. “It is said that when one half finds another, there is an unspoken understanding, a unity, and each would know no greater joy than this.”
4. “What's surprising is that people don't see what they're not looking for.”
5. “Everyone fears God in this town. But do you know who God fears? The Teachers' Union.”
Giphy6. “I can pay more for authentic!”
7. “Get a thesaurus. Use spell-check. Good luck, Romeo.”
9. “In love, one always starts by deceiving oneself and ends by deceiving others. That is what the world calls a romance.”
Oscar Wilde
10. “I hide behind other people’s words. If I knew what love was, I’d quote myself.”
11. “I had an art teacher tell me that the difference between a good painting and a great painting is typically five strokes. And those strokes are usually the boldest strokes in the painting...If you never do the bold stroke, you'll never know if you could have had a truly great painting.”
Giphy12. “Everything beautiful is ruined eventually.”
14. “Did you layer?!” “Yes, I am a Russian doll of clothing.”
16. “Every song, movie, story, has a best part.”
17. “I hope you find something good to believe in.”
19. “Have you ever loved somebody so much that you didn't want anything about her to change?”
20. “Love isn’t pretending.”
21. “I always thought that there was the one right way to love. But there are so many more ways than I knew. I never want to be the guy who stops loving someone for the way that they love.”
Giphy22. “Love isn’t patient and kind and humble. Love is messy and horrible and selfish and bold. It’s not finding your perfect half - it’s the trying and reaching and failing.”
23. “Love is being willing to ruin your good painting for the chance at a great one.”
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