Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe
“Aristotle and Dante walks the right side of the line that separates stereotype and representation.”
Title: Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (2022)
Director: Aitch Alberto 👩🏽🇺🇸🌈
Writer: Screenplay by Aitch Alberto 👩🏽🇺🇸🌈 based on the novel by Benjamin Alire Sáenz 👨🏽🇺🇸🌈
Reviewed by Li 👩🏻🇺🇸
Technical: 3.5/5
With a simple premise seen in YA adaptations like Love, Simon (2018) or Netflix’s Heartstopper series, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe adds to the growing list of queer coming-out narratives. An extra layer arrives through the Mexican American lens of novelist Benjamin Alire Sáenz, whose 2012 book is brought to life by Miami-born Latinx director Aitch Alberto.
On screen, it’s 1987 El Paso and viewers meet the titular Aristotle Mendoza (Max Pelayo) and Dante Quintana (Reese Gonzales). By following their relationship, we dive headfirst into the era’s expectations of gender, sexuality, and what it means to be “really Mexican”—something that the fair-skinned, art-loving Dante isn’t, according to his cousins. Alberto competently renders the angst and heightened emotions that come with being a teenager trying to navigate social norms thanks to earnest performances by Pelayo and Gonzales.
Plot points don’t always connect smoothly, hinting at extra scenes or inner monologues from the novel that had to be hacked away for a 96-minute film. And cinematography skews on the plainer side, neither showy nor intimate, and relies on clichéd images of underwater shots and backlit kisses during magic hour that have been seen ad nauseam in LGBTQ coming-of-age romances like The Half Of It (2020) or Summer of 85 (2020). But all said and done, not nearly enough of these are actually written and directed by queer creators. So in the case of Aristotle and Dante, more is definitely more.
Gender: 3/5
Does it pass the Bechdel Test? YES, but barely
First things first, it’s great to see a woman behind the camera and script. But on screen, they’re stuffed into the thinnest of roles. This is hardly new to the genre of gay romance; just see recent Netflix hits like Heartstopper or Young Royals, or the entire genre of “Boys Love” dramas, at that. Aristotle and Dante falls right in line and while no one is demonized or forced to play a gendered caricature, characters like the protagonists’ mothers, or classmates Gina (Isabella Gomez) and Susie (Hanani Taylor), are little more than cardboard cutouts of Supportive Moms, Shallow Girls, or symbolic queer figures. None of them are particularly human. It’s a shame when powerhouses like Eva Longoria as Dante’s mom, Veronica Falcón as Aristotle’s mom, or Marlene Forte as Tia Ophelia are forced to make the most of what they’re given.
Race: 5/5
The original story of Aristotle and Dante comes from an authentic Mexican American perspective: Sáenz was born in New Mexico and lives in El Paso, where the film takes place. Writer-director Alberto goes on to tell Variety that “as a trans director of Latino descent, there are few of us out there, and a big part of my holdback on my journey was not seeing myself represented behind the camera.”
With such goals and big-name support from Latino producers like Mexican star Eugenio Derbez or Puerto Rican multi-hyphenate Lin-Manuel Miranda, the film clearly has some community support.
Still, some characters feel tropey. Aristotle is afraid to come out to his gruff, hyper-masculine dad (played by Eugenio Derbez). Mexican American teen boys show their power through violence, whether as homophobic peers who brutally attack Dante; Aristotle’s older brother who is in jail for murdering a sex worker, or Aristotle himself in defense of Dante’s honor. But with authentic storytellers who focus on humanizing their Mexican American protagonists, Aristotle and Dante walks the right side of the line that separates stereotype and representation.
Bonus for LGBTQ: +0.50
Aristotle and Dante employs a stale coming-out narrative and uses the physical assault of gay and trans characters as plot points. But this is being told by gay and trans storytellers, and that matters a great deal. In particular, the throwaway mention of a trans woman being assaulted and killed would’ve stung even more had it not been for Alberto behind the script, maneuvering how that devastating message would be relayed.
Mediaversity Grade: B 4.00/5
Employing a conventional coming-out story, Aristotle and Dante smacks of its original debut in 2012—before same-sex marriage was legal in the United States; before the first mainstream theatrical release of a gay rom-com in 2018’s Love, Simon; before streaming platforms like Netflix and Hulu began to churn out LGBTQ content in various genres like campy Christmas movies, dramedies, and more. But that doesn’t mean Alberto’s film has nothing new to add. On the contrary, American shows and movies still sorely lack Latino or trans perspectives, something that Aristotle and Dante offers. I can only hope this becomes less unique as time goes on.
Like Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe? Try these other queer coming-of-age titles with Latino characters.
I Carry You With Me (2020)
Love, Victor - Season 1
The Half Of It (2020)