After

Plot

Tessa Young begins her freshman year of college by moving into her dorm room with the help of her mother, Carol, and her boyfriend, Noah. During this process she meets her new roommate Steph and Steph's girlfriend Tristan. The day after, Tessa shares a brief encounter with Steph's friend, Hardin Scott. The following day Steph persuades Tessa to attend a party where she meets Steph's other friends: Zed, Molly, and Jace, and meets Hardin for the second time. The group play truth or dare, which reveals Tessa's virginity; she is dared to kiss Hardin but refuses. Later on at the party Hardin attempts to kiss Tessa, but she rejects his advances and leaves.

Cast

Josephine Langford as Tessa Young

Hero Fiennes Tiffin as Hardin Scott

Selma Blair as Carol Young

Inanna Sarkis as Molly Samuels

Shane Paul McGhie as Landon Gibson

Khadijha Red Thunder as Steph Jones

Pia Mia as Tristan

Samuel Larsen as Zed Evans

Dylan Arnold as Noah Porter

Jennifer Beals as Karen Scott

Peter Gallagher as Ken Scott

Casting

On May 8, 2018, Julia Goldani Telles and Hero Fiennes Tiffin were cast in the main roles of Tessa Young and Hardin Scott respectively. The actors were selected by the production team, including Todd herself, who was present at the castings and contributed to the casting decisions.In July 2018, Telles announced her exit from the film due to scheduling conflicts. In the same month, Josephine Langford was announced to play Tessa Young. Todd would later state that once she saw Langford, she "knew right away that was Tessa."Pia Mia was cast in the role of Tristan, a previously male character in the books.

Development

In 2013, author Anna Todd posted the first chapters of a fanfiction titled After on fanfiction- and fiction-publishing website Wattpad. The fanfiction's original storyline was based on the boyband One Direction, and featured the band's members Harry Styles, Liam Payne, Niall Horan, Louis Tomlinson and Zayn Malik, portrayed as students at Washington State University. The story followed Tessa Young, an "innocent good girl" who becomes involved in a relationship with "bad boy" Styles.

Within a month of publishing the first chapters, the story had acquired 544 million reads; Todd later landed a deal with Simon & Schuster to publish novelizations of the series, with the lead male character's name changed to Hardin Scott;the novels were subsequently released in 2014. The books gained media attention and became New York Times bestsellers.

Filming

Principal photography was due to begin in June 2018 in Boston, Massachusetts. In early July, producer Jennifer Gibgot stated that shooting would begin on July 16, 2018, in Atlanta, Georgia shortly after Langford had been cast as Tessa.Principal photography was mainly conducted at Emory University, and production was completed on August 24 of the same year.

Box office

After grossed $12.1 million in the United States and Canada and $57.6 million in other territories for a worldwide total of $69.7 million against a production budget of $14 million.

In the United States and Canada, the film was released alongside Hellboy, Little and Missing Link, and was projected to gross $3–12 million from 2,138 theaters in its opening weekend. The film made $2.9 million on its first day, including $550,000 from Thursday night previews. It went on to debut to $6 million, finishing eighth at the box office. In its second weekend, the film dropped 58% to $2.5 million, finishing 11th.

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 18% based on 38 reviews, with an average rating of 3.6/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Tepid and tired, After's fun flourishes are let down by its generic story." The film has a weighted average of 30 out of 100 on Metacritic, based on eight critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews."

Critics found the screenplay at fault, with Owen Gleiberman of Variety writing that After was an "innocuous teen pulp soap opera that flirts with 'danger' but, in fact, keeps surprising you with how mild and safe and predictable it turns out to be."John Fink of The Film Stage echoed this sentiment, commenting that "the talented cast is burdened by a dead on arrival screenplay that waters down what could have been an intoxicating tale of first love," though he noted the film was "beautifully shot" and "occasionally aesthetically pleasing."

Accolades

After won the 2019 Teen Choice Award in the category Choice Drama Movie and the 2019 E! People's Choice Award in the category The Drama Movie of 2019.

After-America is a 2019 romantic drama film directed by Jenny Gage and based on Anna Todd's 2014 novel of the same name. The screenplay is written by Susan McMartin, Tamara Honest and Jenny Gage. The film stars Josephine Langford and Tiffin Fiennes' Hero, as well as an inexperienced teenage girl who begins an affair with a mysterious student in her early months of college. Starring Selma Blair, Inanna Sarkis, Shane Paul McGee, Pia Mia, Khadija Red Thunder, Dylan Arnold, Samuel Larsen, Jennifer Bilsey Peter Gallagher.