The Half of It

The Half of It (2020) is Alice Wu's coming-of-age dramedy, and you can watch it online on iFILM. Ellie Chu, a shy straight-A student in a sleepy Pacific Northwest town, makes pocket money writing other kids' essays.

Then Paul shows up. He's a kind, tongue-tied jock who needs one thing: a love letter for a girl named Aster. Ellie takes the job, then keeps writing, ghostwriting texts and notes long after the first one. The catch is simple and impossible: she's falling for Aster too. What starts as a hired favor turns into an odd triangle where two people court the same girl and the one with the real words stays invisible. Leah Lewis plays Ellie, Daniel Diemer is Paul, and Alexxis Lemire is Aster.

This is a small, quiet film about friendship, the awkwardness of a first crush, and finding your own voice rather than the grand gesture. Wu nods to old letters, philosophy and classic rom-coms, then sidesteps the endings the genre trained you to expect. It won the top narrative prize at the Tribeca Film Festival. Stream The Half of It (2020) online on iFILM.