Erin's Guide to Kissing Girls

Don't buy the hype. This movie is horrible.

In fact, it's the worst movie I have seen in a decade!

It looks like it was made for about three dollars using an iPhone. I know that cant be true, but it talks to the complete lack of professionalism of the filmmaker.

Then there is the acting. Er, what acting? I guess I could blame it on the idiotic script that sounds like a 12 year old wrote it. Or maybe a monkey was given a typewriter and it got lucky.

But it's really a combination. The writing AND the acting suck. I can't believe I actually sat through this thing, hoping it would get better and coming up with nothing but despair.

PS, this is listed in some places as a "family" movie. It's not. Unless you're the Addams family.

Erin is a gay middle schooler. She's a comic book fanatic and draws her own fanfic. Liz is her best friend, but she's going to a different school next year. There are bullies and basic Barbies. Former child star Sydni is the new girl with attitude. Erin is immediately crushing on her.

It's a low budget Canadian indie. It's good that these are actually young teens. I wasn't expecting anybody familiar for the kids although sometimes these indies get a bigger name for an adult role. This needs something like that to hide its low budget qualities. This is a sweet queer coming of age story. I like it for the most part except the ending. It changes the movie post actively and yet doesn't have the conviction to fully commit. It's better not to do it.

Erin's Guide to Kissing Girls (2022) was written and directed by Julianna Notten.

The movie stars Elliot Stocking as Erin. (The actor and the character are women. Elliot is an unusual woman's name, and Erin could go either way.)

Erin is a middle school senior who is open about being a lesbian. The love triangle involves Erin's two friends. The hurdle is the middle school senior prom, and the plot involves the struggle between sexual attraction and friendship.

We saw this movie as part of Rochester's excellent ImageOut LGBTQ film festival. The film has a solid IMDb rating of 7.4. I didn't think it was quite that good, and rated it 7.

Did all the funds go to symbolism? Quality of film poop acting poor but symbols and signage... boom right in the face. The film seemed unnatural and forced. The actors did not react naturally and it intentionally made boys and other that the chosen demographic look stupid. It actually did blow chunks on many levels and if indoctrination was the goal it fell far short of the target. Perhaps the governments funds could have been spent to write a better script. Creativity is only allowed from the most down trodden was message I received; none of it was a group effort despite all the community notes posted.

Erin's Guide is the kind of story queer people wish they had growing up - where the importance of caring friendships was centred above all else. This film does that through a story that captures the complex messiness of being a young person. I could not watch the film and wonder how seeing this would have changed my life if I had the vision it lays out.

The acting is great somehow captures what it is like to be young in a way that is thoughtful and that I rarely get to see. But don't let the actors youth fool you - the directing, camera, and set all come together to capture incredible and beautiful moments that I feel could have been set in my childhood.

Cannot wait to re-watch!