10 Movie Cliches That Need To Die
6. Romantic Dramas About Dying Teens
Stories about young people dealing with life-changing medical diagnoses, disabilities or terminal illnesses can be extremely vital, not only in furthering empathy towards the lives of so many young people, but in educating moviegoers about their day-to-day reality.
They're capable of being incredibly moving, and like The Fault in Our Stars, can come from a raw, personal, semi-autobiographical history, but the issue arises when these stories become a genre in their own right.
Romantic young adult movies about teens with debilitating afflictions are incredibly popular, and that popularity has inspired critics and audiences to wonder who these movies are for, and what their purpose is. As mentioned, movies exploring the lives of these young people can be beneficial, but as Hollywood monetises that relationship the whole thing can only end up feeling a bit icky, tone-deaf and romanticised.
2019's Five Feet Apart, a romantic drama about two in-love teens living with cystic fibrosis, inspired a whole host of critics to again ponder the effect of these cinematic stories, with many likening them to what activist Stella Young called 'inspiration porn', which is essentially "objectifying disabled people for the benefit of nondisabled people."
There's a way to make these movies, but not with the romanticised, simplified approach so many adopt.