The week of Thanksgiving promises turkey, mashed potatoes, awkward reunions, soul-searching and, like clockwork, the annual “turkey dumping” of one unlucky half of couples who ill-advisedly attempted the transition from high school to college. Sweethearts, a new movie from Max (a service that bats higher than the streaming service average when it comes to teen comedies), makes a meal out of this inauspicious Thanksgiving tradition that’s plenty spicy and enough sweet.
Directed by Jordan Weiss, creator of the erstwhile Hulu series Dollface, from a script co-written with Dan Brier, Sweethearts lays out the basic ingredients succinctly, in a clever intro invoking both the naive hope of high school love and the reality of being left on read. Ben (Nico Hiraga) and Jamie (Kiernan Shipka) have been best friends since eighth grade. They have somehow managed to attend the same out-of-state school, and are juggling the usual freshman year identity crisis with long-distance relationships; Ben’s girlfriend Claire (Ava DeMary), an overconfident thespian, is still in high school in Ohio, while Jamie’s boyfriend Simon (Charlie Hall) is playing football for Harvard on a weak GPA.
