Dear Gossips,

John Wick: Chapter 3 opens this weekend. The reviews have been really good – read Sarah’s review here – and it’s projected to bring in around $50 million to win the box office ahead of Avengers: Endgame. It’s no secret that we love John Wick here. But you know what we also love? Romantic movies. And there’s another romantic movie opening this weekend that’s not going to win the box office but – get ready for it – it will win your heart! 

The Sun is Also a Star, starring Yara Shahidi, who is unstoppable right now, and Charles Melton, is currently rated 52% on Rotten Tomatoes. Don’t bother with the critics on this one. I’m going to give you another comparison. There’s another movie with almost the exact same rating on Rotten Tomatoes that the audience overwhelmingly embraced and it became a film “for the culture”, as they say. It’s called The Notebook, which sits at 53% on Rotten Tomatoes and, well, you know how much that mattered. Sometimes you just want to be swept away. Sometimes you need that well-lit montage as you’re watching two very attractive people falling in love, looking at each other with twinkles in their eyes as the wind gently moves through their hair. Sometimes all you ask from a movie is that it makes you squeal and hug yourself. That’s basically what Kathleen was doing beside me when we were at the press screening for The Sun is Also a Star a few weeks ago. On the other side was our friend Melissa Grelo – where Kathleen was all adolescent giggles and blushing, Melissa was full adult  moaning. Over Charles Melton. Remember how we all wanted Ryan Gosling to be our boyfriend? You will come out of this movie with a new summer crush. Charles Melton is so hot and so sweet and so f-cking irresistible in The Sun is Also a Star, I’m actually worried for him now because people are not going to be OK; they are going to project every longing onto him, every fantasy, every daydream they’ve ever had – he will be the vessel. 

But The Sun is Also a Star is doing more than just giving us teen love. The film is set in New York and this is not the New York that we normally see in romantic comedies and/or teen romances. We’re not hanging out in Pinterest coffee shops and slick influencer bars. Instead we spend time at a black hair supply store run by a Korean family, and we get a history lesson about how the two are connected. We’re hanging out at Asian karaoke, we’re hearing people speak with accents, we’re seeing the faces of America’s busiest city who don’t often get represented in these kinds of films. This is a story about family and home, about community, about culture – and it’s also a squealer. 

Last year, the #GoldOpen movement successfully supported Asian American movies like Crazy Rich Asians by buying out theatres on opening weekend. This weekend the movement has expanded- #BlackandGoldOpen is a collaboration between Black and Asian American leaders in support of The Sun is Also a Star. 

 

“We are magic when we’re together.”

Go feel that magic this weekend. 

Have a great weekend!

Yours in gossip,

Lainey