‘Aristotle and Dante’ Review: Texas Hold Him

In the Nineteen Eighties, it was nothing to wander the mall, from Spencer’s to Waldenbooks, with no course. Alas, related ambling takes place within the screenwriter-director Aitch Alberto’s sweet-at-heart however lukewarm indie drama about two Mexican American excessive schoolers coming-of-age in 1987 El Paso.

Based on Benjamin Alire Sáenz’s eponymous YA novel, the movie tracks the friendship between Aristotle, or Ari (Max Pelayo), and Dante (Reese Gonzales), who meet on a scorching day at a swimming pool. Ari is drawn to Dante’s curiosity concerning the world, the byproduct of Dante’s art-loving dad and mom (Kevin Alejandro and Eva Longoria). It’s worlds away from Ari’s solemn however loving mom and father (Eugenio Derbez and Veronica Falcón), who know one thing’s up when their sort son befriends Dante, who favors mesh tank tops and yearns to go to the Louvre.

As Ari and Dante tiptoe into boyfriend-ish territory, Alberto takes disruptive detours, together with a automotive accident, a brother we don’t discuss and, most surprisingly, having an unseen Dante narrate letters to Ari when Dante’s household relocates to Chicago. (AIDS is a blip, glimpsed solely on a newscast.) Dante’s return units in movement the forecast feel-good finale.

Pelayo’s naturalistic easy-breeziness is a convincing distinction to Gonazles’s self-aware efficiency as a extra worldly city-seeker who’s a bus ticket away from turning into a membership child. A much less sentimental, wish-fulfilling method to Mexican American identification, homosexual self-discovery and Reagan-era Texas will wait for one more day. Until then, followers of “Heartstopper”-style slow-burn romance will eat up this tender movie’s refined charms.

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
Rated PG-13 for anti-gay violence and cussin’ like they do in Texas. Running time: 1 hour 36 minutes. In theaters.