Crush (2022) was a legitimately sweet and wholesome movie that made me smile and laugh all the way through, but my overanalyzing brain took another message from it.
In the beginning and throughout the movie, Paige’s crush on Gabby is shown as a fantasy, there is an almost fan fiction like quality to it, but every interaction she has with her is awkward, even after she gets to know her, and the kiss itself is awkward and uncomfortable for both of them. It is so much better in Paige’s head than it was in real life.
But look at her relationship with AJ. How genuine it was from the start. How AJ readily accepted her random animal facts, how she helped her with her art, how she immediately went along with Good Cop Bad Cop at the party, their training together. Paige genuinely seemed to relax more and be herself more around AJ because she didn’t feel the pressure to be perfect, and it paid off. When they kissed, Paige acknowledged how much better it felt, more natural
My takeaway here is that living in your head about someone might bring more harm than good. They may seem perfect on paper, but real relationships are built through time and experience together, not constantly fantasizing about the other person. And Crush exemplified that perfectly with the dichotomy of Paige’s relationships with Gabby and AJ, respectively