Erin's Guide to Kissing Girls (2022) was written and directed by Julianna Notten.

The movie stars Elliot Stocking as Erin. (The actor and the character are women. Elliot is an unusual woman's name, and Erin could go either way.)

Erin is a middle school senior who is open about being a lesbian. The love triangle involves Erin's two friends. The hurdle is the middle school senior prom, and the plot involves the struggle between sexual attraction and friendship.

We saw this movie as part of Rochester's excellent ImageOut LGBTQ film festival. The film has a solid IMDb rating of 7.4. I didn't think it was quite that good, and rated it 7.

Erin's Guide is the kind of story queer people wish they had growing up - where the importance of caring friendships was centred above all else. This film does that through a story that captures the complex messiness of being a young person. I could not watch the film and wonder how seeing this would have changed my life if I had the vision it lays out.

The acting is great somehow captures what it is like to be young in a way that is thoughtful and that I rarely get to see. But don't let the actors youth fool you - the directing, camera, and set all come together to capture incredible and beautiful moments that I feel could have been set in my childhood.

Cannot wait to re-watch!