Queer Premiere – Erin’s Guide to Kissing Girls

Erin’s Guide to Kissing Girls World Television Premiere June 25 at 9pm ET on Hollywood Suite 2000s Movies channel!

In spite of many setbacks in recent years, one part of 2SLGBTQ+ progress you can celebrate this Pride Month is the increasing place for stories of Queer and Questioning youth in movies. While most people would point to the 90s as the first big boom of Queer coming-of-age stories, Canada can actually boast 1965’s Winter Kept Us Warm as an extremely cutting edge genre example among others. As a big fan of film history and Queer films, seeing how far things have come and the opportunities on the horizon is one of the things that makes me so proud to have writer/director Julianna Notten’s Erin’s Guide to Kissing Girls premiere this month on Hollywood Suite.

Even casual movie watchers have probably noticed an increase in stories about 2SLGBTQ+ coming-of-age and, while it can be seen as ‘trendy’, I think Erin’s Guide to Kissing Girls is a great example of how unique and personal these films can be. It’s easy to be cynical when representation in film seems to be ‘on trend’ but it’s also important to remember that sometimes representation comes in waves thanks to increased diversity in who is telling the story, and also an increased understanding of equity-seeking communities and their stories by audiences at large. Erin’s Guide to Kissing Girls not only wears its heart on its sleeve, it also takes wonderful advantage of the progress 2SLGBTQ+ stories have made in mainstream film in general to tell a very specific kind of story.

The movie follows comic book-obsessed junior high school student Erin (Elliot Stocking) – the only out person in her grade – who finds herself drawn to the new girl in class Sydni (Rosali Annikie) as a possibility for her first kiss. With the help of her best – and only – friend Liz (Jesyca Gu) she concocts tactics to ask Sydni to the upcoming dance.

Like most great movies though, Erin’s Guide to Kissing Girls’ title is a playful tease and the bulk of the story is actually about Erin’s conflict and frustration as she finds friend Liz heading off to a private school and potentially leaving her behind. Like most young people, the emotional struggle is very real and trying to deal with it while not dealing with it ends up ruining more than just potential makeouts.

While lines like “quit acting like it’s 2007” as a response to homophobia may turn older queer viewers to dust, things like the nuances of the relationships between Erin, Liz and Sydni are what makes this film unique. To think nowadays we can have a character that’s confidently queer (while still questioning exactly where she fits) opens doors to examine the reality and humour between queer/straight friendships, the awkwardness of straight allyship, having queer parents and the specific tension of being young and exploring a sexuality that could garner extreme reactions. It may make me feel old, but my heart soars with the idea that younger audiences can now get a funny and charming teen movie that also has the breathing room to touch on all these fresh subjects.

Pride month is an opportunity to sit down with the history of 2SLGBTQ+ movies and take stock of the many pioneers who paved the way, but I’d also recommend staying engaged with something new or something that connects to the modern generation like Erin’s Guide to Kissing Girls. I promise you’ll come away not only with a warm feeling about how far queer narratives have come, but also an excitement for the many aspects and corners of queer life we have yet to see on the big screen. There is so much great potential that still exists in 2SLGBTQ+ filmmaking that we’re just beginning to see.

Find the next play times for Erin’s Guide to Kissing Girls (2022) on Hollywood Suite.