Quartile rating: 7.5/10 · 1 rating
When an aspiring young artist is forced to join her high school track team, she uses it as an opportunity to pursue the girl she's been harboring a long-time crush on. But she soon finds herself falling for an unexpected teammate and discovers what real love feels like.
Crush (2022) is a lighthearted sapphic teen rom-com that earns credit for centering a lesbian romance with genuine warmth and representation, a relative rarity in mainstream high school comedies. The plot follows familiar rom-com beats — mistaken identity of the crush, love triangle, unexpected connection — executed competently but without major surprises. The acting is charming and naturalistic, with the young leads delivering appealing performances that feel authentic to Gen Z sensibilities. Cinematography is functional but unremarkable, typical of a streaming teen comedy with no particular visual ambition. Novelty gets a modest boost for its sincere, casually queer framing that treats the romance as wholly normal, which still stands out in the genre. The ending is satisfying and emotionally earned within the genre's conventions without being particularly distinctive.