In the period that the LGBTQ+ rom-com has existed as a genre film, its products have not always met our cinematic, gay expectations. Often they’ve been more successful as landmark gestures towards queer representation than well-crafted entertainment vehicles in and of themselves. We won’t name names. Though, to be frank, But I’m a Cheerleader (1999) may have been the last truly great entry into the canon. But the new trailer for Crush, a light-hearted queer girl romance coming to Hulu on April 29, has filled us with hope yet.
Rowan Blanchard is Paige, a high school senior hoping to get into the prestigious California Institute of the Arts; she listens to so much girl in red she has the t-shirt to prove it, and her obsession with long-time crush Gabriella (Isabella Ferreira) may just drive her to writing a whole application essay about it. “Is she in slow motion again? Music playing in the background?” asks Dylan (Tyler Alvarez), her ride-or-die platonic bestie, as Paige nods and dreamily looks on at her beau.
Miller High School boasts an exceptional range of queers: there’s Chantelle, a wannabe TikTok witch who casts love spells and burns sage by her locker; Amy, a backwards-baseball-cap-wearing “gateway gay” who has “fingered every girl in the school.” Of course, Paige only has eyes for one girl. Well, for a good while anyway.
Swearing that this is the semester that she’ll make a move on Gabriella, Paige joins the track team to get closer to her. But meeting Gabby’s sister AJ, played by Moana star Auliʻi Cravalho, quickly throws a spanner into those works. Circumstance in the form of a lazy track coach throws the pair together when AJ is tasked with physically training Paige. A gay, athletic love triangle ensues. J’adore.
You can watch the very queer and very wholesome trailer below. Alert the girls, gays and theys! Sapphic season is ON!