Tao (William Gao) and Elle (Yasmin Finney) have been the will-they-won’t-they of Heartstopper, mainly because we all knew that Nick (Kit Connor) and Charlie (Joe Locke) would figure their love out. Meanwhile, Elle and Tao were lost to their own worries about being good enough for each other and not wanting to ruin their relationship as friends. It has left us wishing the two would just try and go on a date to see how it works out for them in the end. Well, that’s exactly what happens in season 2!
While Charlie was dealing with his own food struggles and Nick was trying to come out to everyone at school and proudly call Charlie his boyfriend, Tao was struggling with his feelings for Elle. Encouraged to just ask her out, Tao plans a “perfect date” for them to go on, including Elle’s favorite movie: Moonrise Kingdom.
Tao is trying to make it an event for Elle as she reveals it’s her favorite movie, but the part that gets me is that Tao admits that he hates it. Even after watching it again, he says, “I just think that’s probably Wes Anderson’s least technically good movie, from like a story perspective. I mean, it all hinges on the romance between the two kids which is so unbelievable anyway because they meet and fall in love immediately. And, like, they’re kids. So obviously it’s not going to last long term.”
Sadly, Elle just quietly tells Tao that he shouldn’t have picked that movie and that makes her stronger than me because if a man stood near me bashing my favorite movie? I don’t think we’d even be friends much longer after that, and we certainly wouldn’t have a second date.
It’s still Wes Anderson’s best!
While Elle thinks they should have done something they both enjoy (meaning not having Elle standing there listening to Tao hate on her favorite movie), I still want to talk about why Tao is wrong. Granted, it is his opinion, so he’s not really wrong in that sense, but saying that Moonrise Kingdom is Wes Anderson’s least technically good movie because the movie itself is focused on kids falling in love with each other is laughable.
It’s, in my opinion, the one that works the most because of course two young kids with crushes on each other think that their love is the end-all, be-all of their lives. For Tao, he’s more of a pessimist, so of course he doesn’t understand how Moonrise Kingdom can work. But Elle? She’s more of an optimist, and she has been forced to see the good side of things (from moving schools to meeting new friends and more). So yes, she sees the beauty of Moonrise Kingdom.
While a great study in both Tao and Elle as characters, it is one of those moments when I question Tao’s movie tastes. I would definitely not be following him on Letterboxd.
(featured image: Netflix)
