book hello goodbye and everything in between

Fisher, a more forced actor playing a more suave character, still manages to match her naturalism. Doe-eyed and near-trembling with emotion, she radiates internal tension and believably contours very teenage logic – to confuse denying one’s feelings for maturity, to mistake arbitrarily ending things for independence. Ryder, who impressed as a teen assisting her cousin get an out-of-state abortion in the somber indie drama Never Rarely Sometimes Always, makes Clare’s breakup plan seem less like an awkward plot device and more like the genuine response of a person at once scared, confused and awed by the future. As with its relative, the film successfully targets the emotional dissonance of being a teenager in the suburbs – chaotic and wildly intense emotions in a stable, fundamentally conservative environment.

Hello, Goodbye and Everything in Between, directed by Michael Lewen, doubles down on the TATBILB aesthetic – atmospheric pop music, skirts and crop tops, bottled chemistry fizzing with naturalistic ribbing, enviable homes in the Pacific north-west, the specter of faraway elite colleges, a racially diverse cast, wholesome parties where no one actually gets drunk.

There’s inevitable heartache and trepidation for the future, along with some B-plot hijinks from friends Scotty (Nico Haraga, playing essentially the same stoner-y goof with a heart of gold as in fellow teen movies Booksmart and Netflix’s Moxie) and Stella (Ayo Edebiri, playing a less mature version of her sardonic character on The Bear, this summer’s surprise TV hit). The rest of the film follows their final, grand date, which of course devolves from mutually agreed upon romantic goodbye to the painful tangle of emotions Clare hoped to avoid. A montage from their first kiss through graduation and other milestones (it’s nice, given Netflix’s relatively sexless handling of YA, to have two characters repeatedly fall into an actual bed) crash-lands us in August, on the eve of their planned breakup. They meet in November, and she asserts that she does not want a boyfriend when starting college they kiss anyway, and agree to freefall until the hard deadline of her departure. In the course of 10 convincing, impressively efficient minutes, he falls for Ryder’s Clare, a fellow senior and child of divorced high school sweethearts who has moved back after living elsewhere.

Fisher, also an executive producer, plays Aidan, the child of two doctors pressured to follow in their footsteps.

Book hello goodbye and everything in between