Genre: Drama
Director: Kogonada
Writer: Alex Conn
Cast: Lucas Hedges, Elle Fanning, Haley Lu Richardson, Kara Hayward, Mark Rylance, Bob Balaban
Plot: John (Lucas Hedges) is in the principal’s office. The film just stays in a close up with John as he is crying voices that are audible but you can’t tell what they’re saying
The film then cuts to a couple days before. John is waiting for his girlfriend Juniper (Elle Fanning) at a restaurant. He brought her flowers and we see Juniper with her makeup smeared. John asks if she’s ok. Juniper doesn’t respond. John eventually drops Juniper home.
John then calls his therapist (Bob Balaban) and he admits it’s rather weird but he suggests some breathing exercises to do to calm himself down. He does breathing and meditation and also smokes a puff of weed. He texts Juniper and doesn’t hear back the entire weekend. He calls Julie (Haley Lu Richardson) and she says that Juniper is doing fine. John calls his therapist again and he says she’s probably fine and that he’s overreacting. John then has flashes and dreams of her face.
The next day at school John doesn’t see Juniper. He sees the same old lesson from Mr Johnson (Mark Rylance) who’s an old man past the retirement age about The Catcher In The Rye.He tells the same story about how Catcher In the Rye is a metaphor about World War 2. The next day John is informed by the principal that Juniper committed suicide. John walks home in sadness remembering all the great times they had especially the time they met in film class and how they both laughed at the bad movie they were playing and the first time they had sex in the back of Junipers car.
Back in present day John is in English class and Julie tries to cheer him up and hugs him. John talks to his therapist and he tells John about Julie and the therapist suggests that he ask her out.
John asks out Julie and they go to the same restaurant that was in the first scene. John can’t stop thinking about him and Junipers first date and how they both drank milkshakes and they shared a kiss outside in the snow. He remembers her really attractive way of saying the word yeah. They eventually go back to Julie’s house to have sex Julie gets on top and John is about to touch Julie’s breasts but can’t do it because he keeps thinking about Juniper.
John goes to school and he eats lunch in his English teacher Mr Johnson's office. Mr Johnson says that he knew John and Juniper dated and he tells a story about how when he went to war and how when he came back he found out that his fiance died of a drug overdose. He tells how he did not feel like he could ever find love ever again.
John remembers a time when he and Juniper were going on a date together and they went to Junipers favorite place which was the merry go round. They also went to a movie. All this was really nice. When they got home John was trying to pressure Juniper to have sex with him.
John finds out that Juniper was a lesbian by her friend Jennifer (Kara Hayward) but her parents were conservative so she wasnt allowed to come out and she did care for John so she went out with John. The reason she committed suicide was that she had just come out to her parents and they didn’t accept her. It is also revealed that Julie was her girlfriend. It then cuts to Juniper and John having sex and Juniper then wanting to not do it after a minute and John is saddened by that. John then envisions Juniper and Julie having sex and it cuts to him crying in his bed.
John walks home in tears as he walks home he meets Jennifer who hands him a note that she found in Junipers room. It’s her suicide note that was addressed to John. John reads the note and the note says even though she was a lesbian she did love John in a special way even though she wasn’t sexually attracted to him and some of her favorite memories involve John. John tells his therapist that he was initially distraught by the discovery but he realizes that if she felt the freedom to be a lesbian she wouldn’t have committed suicide and she would have been a happier person. He then walks out of his therapists office and looks up at the sky. The film ends with John laying on his bed looking at the ceiling smoking a joint remembering a time when Juniper and him were staring at the sky discussing the constellations and how that made them feel.
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