Chemical Hearts

Cinephile deep dive

The take

Richard Tanne directs. Albert Salas behind the camera. Stephen James Taylor scores. Joseph C. Bond IV cuts. Runs lean at under 100 minutes. Produced in United States of America. Dialogue in English.

Trivia

Things worth knowing

• 1Released 6 years ago.
• 2Directed by Richard Tanne, shot by Albert Salas. Note their partnership — DPs and directors often return to each other across a career.
• 3Original score by Stephen James Taylor. Worth a dedicated listen after — most great films lose half their impact without the score.
• 4Editor Joseph C. Bond IV shaped the rhythm. On an edit-heavy film, the editor does more to control your pulse than the director.
• 5Austin Abrams and Lili Reinhart and Sarah Jones carry the top of the cast.
• 6Marketing tagline: "Fall in love. Fall apart.".
• 7IMDB entry: tt5843876 — still the authoritative cross-reference for credits and trivia.

The technical file

Cinematography

Albert Salas

Original score

Stephen James Taylor

Editing

Joseph C. Bond IV

Production design

Lucio Seixas

Costume design

Vanessa Porter

Makeup / hair

Rachel Hevesi

VFX supervisor

Cyril Balavoine

Sound

Drew Webster

Stunt coordinator

Drew Leary

Runtime

93 min · 1h 33m

Aspect ratio (typical)

1.37:1 (Academy)

Status

Released

Original language

EN

Certification (US)

R

IMDB

Chemical Hearts (2020) ↗

Also by

Richard Tanne

• 
  Southside with You

  2016 · ★ 5.6

Stills · wallpapers

Selected frames

Full-resolution frames — open one to save it as a wallpaper.

Wallpaper Wallpaper

Trailers & featurettes

Watch the pieces

• 

  ▶
  Official Trailer

  Trailer · Official
• 

  ▶
  Clip

  Clip · Official

Community reviews

What people are saying

• tmdb280390232022-08-29
  ★ 1/10

  Chemical Hearts has a very short attention span and requires that the audience has the retentive memory of a gold fish as well. This is a movie in which a sheet of paper is subjected to the flame of a lighter and later reappears taped together as if it had been torn and not burned. Henry Page (Austin Abrams) is a high school senior who aspires to be the editor-in-chief of the school newspaper so that people know his point of view, although he himself admits that "what good is a platform if you have nothing to say". Coincidentally, producer/director/writer Richard Tanne has the same problem; he has the medium but not the content. Henry and Grace Town (Lili Reinhart) are both vying for the editor job, though apparently no one bothered to tell her. When they are offered to be co-editors, Grace is not interested and walks away very slowly – she uses a cane and is also distant and sullen; she's basically the female, teenage version of Dr. House. Henry walks her home and tells her that the poem she was reading earlier, which he rudely reads over Grace's shoulder, is "beautiful." She replies that that is what someone who did not understand the poem would say. This makes Grace a hypocrite, since they are talking about an English translation of a Neruda poem. Henry lives much farther from the school than Grace, so she gives him a ride, or rather, he gives her a ride to his house in her car, which they leave parked in front of his house, to be picked up later by someone who is presumably her father. So Grace walks with a cane and doesn't like to drive. Do you think she was in some sort of car crash? Is the sky blue? Henry continues to bum rides off her; he must think Grace's dad or whoever that guy is has nothing better to do than pick up her car later. The nonsense doesn't stop there, though. She goes to the school's football field for a nightly workout on the track when no one else is around; oddly, the lights are on like it's game night – do they always leave the lights on all night or do they turn them on just for her? As for Henry, his hobby is breaking vases and gluing them back together; this of course is a clumsy allegory for his effort to "fix" Grace. She tells him that she doesn't need to be fixed, but then her motto is "serva me, servabo te" ("save me and I'll save you"), so mixed signals, anybody? All things considered, Henry and Grace's relationship is destined to fail because 1) he is a wimp, and 2) she is one beer short of a sixpack, the light is on but no one's home, she's crazier than a sh-thouse rat, etc etc. It doesn't help either that they're both in their twenties pretending to be high school students, which makes it very difficult for us to believe that this is only Henry's first love and Grace's second.

  Read full review ↓

Production companies

Who made it

• 

  Page Fifty-Four Pictures

  US

• 

  Awesomeness Films

  US

• 

  Big Indie Pictures

  US

Key crew

• Sound Effects EditorSamuel Nacach
• Sound Re-Recording MixerDrew Webster
• Visual Effects SupervisorCyril Balavoine
• Visual Effects SupervisorBenoît Brière
• Visual Effects ProducerMeggie Cabral
• Sound DesignerHector C. Gika
• Supervising Sound EditorKami Asgar
• Sound Re-Recording MixerRobert Chen
• Stunt DoubleHannah Scott
• Stand InMark Rosa
• Stunt DoubleCaroline Vexler
• Executive ProducerLili Reinhart
• Second Assistant DirectorAlice Johnson
• Rigging GafferA.J. Desimone
• Still PhotographerLinda Källérus
• NovelKrystal Sutherland
• EditorJoseph C. Bond IV
• Graphic DesignerErich Davis
• On Set DresserTom LaVecchia
• Art Department CoordinatorChloé Seytre
• Executive ProducerJamin O'Brien
• Charge Scenic ArtistKelly Syring
• Sound MixerMichael Sterkin
• Costume DesignVanessa Porter

Themes & keywords

What it's about, really

• high school
• coming of age
• young love
• school newspaper
• based on young adult novel
• teenager
• pretentious

Release history · US

When it landed

• Theatrical (limited)2020-08-21R· Drive-in
• Digital2020-08-21R· Amazon

Also known as

International titles

• Les Désaccords du cœurFR
• A Química que Há Entre NósBR
• Chemie láskyCZ
• 化学心脏CN