High school student Alex Truelove has long been best friends with Claire, but after discovering her mother is being tested for cancer, she and Alex kiss and begin dating. They plan to book a hotel room and have sex for the first time. At a party, Alex meets Elliot, an openly gay teenager. Alex's continued interactions with Elliot, who has an obvious crush on Alex, lead him to question his sexuality. He confesses to his friend Del that he believes he might be bisexual, but Del says that he is just nervous about losing his virginity to Claire and his anxiety has led him to a false conclusion. One day while hanging out in Elliot's bedroom, Alex kisses him, but immediately regrets it and storms out. During the evening of their first time having sex, Alex admits to Claire that he has feelings for someone else and she throws him out. Avoiding Elliot, Alex goes to a party where he drunkenly sleeps with a girl he only just met. Claire catches them, and Alex chases her into the night. He falls into a swimming pool where memories from his earlier life come back to him. Claire finds him outside of the pool, at which point he tells her that he is gay. They decide to still go to prom together anyway. At prom, Claire reveals she has invited Elliot to be Alex's actual date, knowing that neither of them would actually make the move without her "passing the baton". While Alex is initially concerned about everyone watching him, he decides that his affection for Elliot is stronger and kisses him. The story ends with Alex creating a video with Claire detailing his coming out, which is overlaid with real-life coming out videos from many other individuals.
In May 2016, it was announced Craig Johnson would write and direct the film, with Jared Goldman, Ben Stiller and Nicholas Weinstock producing the film, under their Red Hour Films banner. STX Entertainment would distribute the film. In April 2017, Netflix acquired the film, with STX Entertainment still producing the film. That same month, Daniel Doheny joined the cast of the film. In June 2017, Nik Dodani and Antonio Marziale joined the cast of the film.
The film had its world premiere at the San Francisco International Film Festival on April 14, 2018. It was released on June 8, 2018 on Netflix.
Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 80% based on 25 reviews, and an average rating of 6.06/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Alex Strangelove offers a refreshingly insightful – and fittingly adult – take on teen sexuality enlivened by smart humor and a fearlessly progressive approach." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 62 out of 100, based on 10 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
