Courtesy of MTV

The LGBTQ+ community has seen a surge of popular movies that depict queer leads in the 21st century, including “Call Me by Your Name,” “Moonlight” and “Carol.” These films have actually been very successful, not only in the box office but on the awards circuit, and the term “film” seems more accurate than “movie” to describe these motion pictures. 

While these kinds of films are often well-received by the public and film-savvy individuals, what about people who prefer sappy and cliche movies like romantic comedies? There seems to be a lack of LGBTQ+ movies that are accessible for people who don’t necessarily notice camera work, lighting and overall cinematography. This Valentine’s Day, Freeform released a new movie just for those audiences. 

“The Thing About Harry” premiered on Saturday, Feb. 15, and there was a lot of advertising leading up to the release. Every ad depicted it as “the gay rom-com for this Valentine’s Day!” The past few years have finally brought about some more young-adult oriented movies featuring LGBTQ+ teenagers such as “Love, Simon” (based on the novel “Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda” by Becky Albertalli) and “Booksmart.” 

However, “The Thing About Harry” worked not only as a movie for young audiences, but also as one for an older generation that still appreciates the classic romantic comedies. In addition, there’s a cameo appearance by Karamo Brown for “Queer Eye” fans.

Sam and Harry, the movie’s leads, are two men who went to the same high school but did not get along. Sam was the queer nerd type, while Harry was a jock. Like in stereotypical high school movies, these social groups did not mix well. However, things start to change now that the characters are older and forced to spend a long car ride together. 

Sam was openly gay in high school and he learns that Harry has only recently come out as pansexual. Pansexuality is a queer identity not commonly depicted in media, so the inclusion of a pansexual character is a progressive thing for a movie to do. 

At one point near the beginning of the film, Harry is dating a woman, but later in the movie, he claims to be celibate so people won’t think he falls into the pansexual stereotype of dating a lot. This is a stereotype that many queer people who identify as pansexual, bisexual or anything along those same lines must deal with, and the movie addresses the stereotype in a positive way. 

In addition to all of the groundbreaking inclusion that this movie creates for the queer community, the screenwriters still keep many traditional romantic comedy expectancies with just a little more realism than the classic ones. There are several misunderstandings that stop the two leads from getting together and this rom-com actually takes place over many years. 

Unlike most romantic comedies, it’s possible to even second-guess whether or not the leads will end up together, since it feels like such a reality-based movie. However, there are still many scenes that will melt the coldest and most homophobic hearts, because who can resist the sappy cliches of romantic comedies? 

The next time you need to curl up to watch a movie, “The Thing About Harry” is definitely a good choice.