Taglines: After your first, life is never the same.
Based on Anna Todd’s novel, After follows Tessa (Josephine Langford), a dedicated student, dutiful daughter and loyal girlfriend to her high school sweetheart, as she enters her first semester in college. Armed with grand ambitions for her future, her guarded world opens up when she meets the dark and mysterious Hardin Scott (Hero Fiennes Tiffin), a magnetic, brooding rebel who makes her question all she thought she knew about herself and what she wants out of life.
After is an adult romance film directed by Jenny Gage, and written by Susan McMartin, Tamara Chestna, and Gage. It is based on the 2014 novel of the same name written by Anna Todd, which was adapted from an earlier Harry Styles fan fiction of the same name, also written by Todd. The film stars Josephine Langford as Tessa Young, a college student who begins a turbulent relationship with bad boy Hardin Scott, played by Hero Fiennes-Tiffin. The film was released in the United States on April 12, 2019, by Aviron Pictures. It was a commercial success after gaining $69.7 million worldwide against a $14 million budget.
About the Story
The movie opens with a voice-over by a teenage girl talking about how moments in your life that can define you while it shows a montage of shots of a couple spending time together. The girl says everything in her life was simple before him, and now it’s just after.
Tessa (Josephine Langford) wakes up from a dream and starts to pack her room to leave for college. She is joined by her mother, Carol (Selma Blair) and her BF (best friend), Noah (Dylan Arnold) in the kitchen downstairs. Her mother is listing off items that she thinks that Tessa will need while Tessa reminds her that she is going to college and not a survival camp. Noah interjects and says he can drive up there and drop anything off if she forgets it.
The next scene shows them driving through various city settings until they get to her new University. Carol, Noah, and Tessa make their way through the crowded dorm halls looking for her new room, B-22. They open the door and are met by loud music and two girls sitting on the bed. Tessa introduces herself to her new roommate Steph (Khadijha Red Thunder) who is vaping. Steph introduces Tessa to Tristan (Pia Mia). Steph makes a remark about being unsure about having a freshman roommate, but she says it should be cool…
she’ll be her spirit guide. Tristan says that they can get Tessa into all the best places even without a fake ID. Carol leaves the room upset and demands that they ask for a room change since the room reeked of weed. She doesn’t want these girls to distract Tessa from her schoolwork. Tessa reminds her that she is responsible and it won’t be an issue.
She says goodbye to both Noah and her mom. Tessa returns to her room, and Tristan is gone. Steph and Tessa chat about freaking out Carol, how Noah is Tessa’s BF (not her brother as Steph believed) and still a senior in High school and Tessa’s rather large book collection. Steph leaves, and Tessa unpacks. She is shown later in bed texting with Noah about starting her 1st day the next morning.
Tessa leaves her dorm early in the morning, and head’s to her 1st class across campus. She meets Landon (Shane Paul McGhie) outside of a locked classroom. They are the first students to arrive. A professor comes by shortly and opens the door for them. It is an Econ 101 course. They chit chat about their majors and being first year students.
Later that day Tessa takes a shower in the dorm and realizes that her clothes fell on the ground and are all wet. She returns to her room in her towel and opens the closet door. She notices a boy sitting on Steph’s bed in the closet mirror and whips around startled. She tells him she thinks he is in the wrong room. The boy tells her he is in fact in the right place as he barely breaks his concentration from the book he is reading.
She then asks him how he got in, and he holds up a set of keys. She asks him to leave so that she can get dressed, but he tells her not to flatter herself… he’s not even looking at her. Steph enters the room and sits down on the bed with him. Tessa asks Steph to have her BF leave the room, to which Steph replies that he is not her BF and asks the boy what he had been saying to her to make her think that. The boy says he’s been minding his business.
Steph tells Tessa she is going out with them that night, but Tessa seems reluctant. The boy makes a snide comment about not being able to see her as the partying type. Tessa decides not to go. Steph and the boy get up to leave. Just as the boy is about to go out the door, he hands the book he was reading back to Tessa. He says that The Great Gatsby is a wonderful book, and he hates to spoil it for her, but it was all a dream. Tessa corrects him and says that actually, it was all a lie (important later). The boy smirks at her and leaves the room.
Tessa is shown the next day at a campus coffee shop studying. A trio of people walk in (one of them being the rude boy from her room the night before). They order their drinks and Tessa makes eye contact with the boy, and he slightly smiles. They briefly stare at each other, and he turns and walks out with his friends. Tessa goes to the library to study. She is interrupted by Steph who tells her that they are going to a party that night. Steph helps Tessa pick out her party outfit. She settles on a maroon dress.
After (2019)
Directed by: Jenny Gage
Starring: Meadow Williams, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Josephine Langford, Peter Gallagher, Jennifer Beals, Selma Blair, Samuel Larsen, Inanna Sarkis, Pia Mia, Rebecca Lee Robertson, Chris Kontopidis
Screenplay by: Susan McMartin
Production Design by: Lynne Mitchell, Rusty Smith
Cinematography by: Tom Betterton, Adam Silver
Film Editing by: Michelle Harrison
Costume Design by: Alana Morshead
MPAA Rating: PG-13 for sexual content and some college partying.
Distributed by: Aviron Pictures
Release Date: April 12, 2019
Visits: 197
