Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

It's been a while since I've seen such a gentle wholesome film. I wish such a film existed when I was a teen. Superb performances from the cast, but major kudos to the young leads. The film hinges on their believability, likability, and chemistry - and they definitely rose to the challenge. I hope to see both of them in more projects.

I love the subtlety and naturalism of the film. Proof that lgbtq themed stories do not need to be pushy or preachy. Instead it felt relatable and real.

The cinematography is beautiful and naturalistic. The editing is mostly efficient and practical but there are moments with a dreamlike quality.

It should be required viewing for anyone lgbtq - but especially young people who need to see positive representation. Like I said, I wish a movie like this would have existed when I was a kid.

I had the privilege of seeing Aristotle & Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe twice at the Palm Springs Film Festival in January 2023. As a fan of the novel it's based on, it was wonderful to see this beautiful story come to life.

The screenplay and direction by Aitch Alberto was clearly created with such love for the story that it translated beautifully onto the screen. With any adaptation, parts of the story have to change, but I actually found myself wishing that two new scenes from the movie had actually been in the book because they added so much depth to the story.

Max Pelayo and Reese Gonzales as Aristotle and Dante were perfect in these roles. You'd never know this was either of their first feature films. The acting was nuanced and they knew those characters so well.

And the parents! One of the things I loved in the book was that Ari and Dante's parents were fully-fledged people (not just side characters tossed in) who loved their sons so fully. In the film, the love from their parents and the differences in their family dynamics and how they love, was the centerpiece as well.

Love in many forms is a central theme to this film and I look forward to watching it over and over when it has a full release.

I wanted to watch this movie for so long and just didn't know where to see it. As a fan of the books I think I expected a lot from the movies and I won't say it was bad, I was just disappointed. The film has no flow and it's like they took chapters from the book independent of each other and just made scenes from it without considering how everything merges together. The dialogue was okay I guess but the chemistry was so off and the acting was so novice like this was a YouTube made film. Another issue I had was the 'experiment', the movie portrayal of the experiment was completely different from the book. What I love about Ari was he was nvr homophobic to Dante, although he was going through his own internalized crisis, he never said or did those things to Dante. Dante's portrayal also seemed so different from what I had in my head but they captured Ari perfectly. The pace of the movie was so quick, 3 scenes in and we were already at the middle of the book. Bless the costume designers for putting Dante in the gayest outfits ever.

Three Hundred Seventy-Five Pages and the job is to reduce it to One Hour Thirty-Seven Minutes on film and keep it honest and authentic. The original source material by author Benjamin Alite Sáenz is named TIME Magazine's "Best YA Book of All Time" (2021)" and selected as a "Printz Honor Book" who describes it as a "tender, honest exploration of identity." Publishers Weekly adds that "Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe" distills lyrical truths about family and friendship. That's some undertaking by Aitch Alberto, who serves this film masterfully as its screenwriter, producer and director. The ability to pluck the essence of the book's major emotional beats speaks of a complete immersion into the characters created by Mr Sáenz's and who continue their journey in the follow up book "Aristotle and Dante Dive into the Waters of the World." The casting of Max Pelayo as Aristotle was brilliant, as was Reese Gonzalez as Dante.

Rarely does a movie come about that lingers with the viewer sufficiently so that they will be motivated to keep them alive in their hearts by reading the book. With the follow up book already available, that adds additional motivation to read them both.

With your imagination aided by Max and Reese's portrayal, it'll be easy going for even the most finicky readers.

There's bed a few similar entries like the film Red, White and Royal Blue and TV series like Young Royals and Heartstopper that deals in young adult first love. This movie tops them all in character development and likability. Done well, as it is done here is a treat to watch.

My 8 rating would be 8.5 if decimals were available. It misses a 9 by just a bit, maybe fifteen more minutes would have been helpful, as the story moves a bit too quickly in the middle.

There is something truly special about this film. It's sweet, it's cute, it pulls at your heartstrings, it ALMOST made my eyes water, and I loved every second of it! Max Pelayo (Aristotle) took this role and tan away with it. He did a remarkable job and I was genuinely impressed. His acting career going forward looks very promising and I'm excited to see what's next for him. Reese Gonzales was also good, but there are a few moments here and there where it felt like the acting was overdone. I picked up that Dante was meant to be this fun, charming, outgoing, quirky individual, but some scenes just seemed unnatural. That's me being very knick-picky though; he's still a young actor. It's definitely one to watch!