Movie Review - Every Day (2018)

Country: United States

Language: English

Type of story: Body Hopper

Sexuality: Bisexual / Doesn’t change

Nudity: No

How I watched it: I purchased it from Amazon Prime in September (Watch Here), but as of the writing of this, it’s also available free with ads from Roku (Watch Here), Tubi (Watch Here) and PlutoTV (Watch Here).

When I last watched it: November 2, 2024

I saw this movie recommended in someone else’s Discord server. It’s based on a book, and I read the book first before watching the movie. Books are almost always better than their cinematic counterparts, so this review might be tainted by that.

My synopsis (spoiler-free): Based on the book by David Levithan, Every Day tells the tale of “A”, a teenage genderless being who wakes up in the body of a new person their age every morning. And never the same person twice. One day, in the body of Justin (Justice Smith), A meets Justin’s girlfriend Rhiannon (Angourie Rice) and falls in love. Every day after that, A, in a different body, tries to find and build a relationship with Rhiannon.

* * Spoilers ahead * *

A tells Rhiannon the truth about their existence. She’s skeptical at first, but the more time they spend together, the closer they get, and they fall in love.

The Transformation: 

This review will be a little different because this story is different. There is no single transformation and nothing that started A along their body-hopping existence. They were born that way. There are rules, however. Every day at midnight, they move onto the next body - whether they want to or not. Always someone their age. Always someone within 100 miles (approximate). Regardless of gender, race, ability, etc, which will allow A to become a very diverse cast of teenagers, and how they deal with those changes are part of the plot.

When we first meet A, they wake up in the body of Justin. We see them set an alarm for 11 pm and 11:50 pm. This is their routine. We see them try to seamlessly blend in with the body’s life. But it’s not easy. Rhiannon shows up and apologizes for blowing up Justin’s phone with text messages. A is overly sweet, charming and apologetic. Then Rhiannon suggests skipping school and they spend the day and evening together. The couple have an amazing time together, such that A falls in love with Rhiannon and must see her again. Meanwhile Rhiannon wonders why every date with Justin can’t be like that.

The second time we meet A, they wake up as Amy (Jeni Ross). In the book, Amy lives in a different town, so A has to drive a ways to Rhiannon’s school to meet her again. The movie just kinda skips that and has A show up.

This is where we meet the real Justin. He’s a prick and a shitty boyfriend to Rhiannon. We do get a scene where A as Amy calls Justin on his shit, but this just means Rhiannon gets up and goes home.

Gender and Sexuality: This book is a Young Adult novel and the movie is no different. Gender, sexuality, and identity are very much a part of the theme of this book, but it still manages to keep its “Young Adult” rating. 

Rhiannon asks A whether they’re a boy or a girl, and A responds “Yes.” 

A shows up at Rhiannon’s school one day as Vic (Ian Alexander). Vic is clearly outside the gender binary. When Rhiannon refers to A’s body as “she”, they correct her “he.” A explains Vic’s predicament perfectly: “Not everyone’s body aligns with their mind.” 

A at one point says that in relationships, "I've been a lot of boyfriends, and a lot of girlfriends."

When A is Michael (Jake Sim), they and Rhiannon make out (and potentially have unshown sex), the movie shows a montage of A as their previous male hosts, but only once shows a female one. It’s clear the movie is trying to say that Rhiannon is straight. However, in one of the last hops of the movie, A is Hanna (Karena Evans) and asks Rhiannon if they can kiss, and they do which is the movie's only girl-girl kiss.

The Casting: The casting is great. Remember, I read the book first. When each actor showed up on screen I instantly recognized them as their character from the book and was happy with the movie's choice of actor to play the part. 

Angourie Rice plays Rhiannon fine, but I want to talk about when Rice plays A. There's a twist in the middle of the movie/book when A wakes up as Rhiannon. Rice plays this amazingly well. She is playing someone who is in love with her host body. Her great big simile is plastered on her face all day. She’s awkward and apologetic in the shower, trying not to look. Rice’s performance show’s someone who is genuinely in love and trying to soak it all up. That part of the movie is very much a highlight for me.

Deviations from the book

• The book is told from A’s perspective. The movie is told from joint perspectives, but mostly Rhiannon’s. I’m aware the 2nd book in the series, Another Day, retells the same events from Rhiannon’s perspective. While I haven’t read that, I imagine the movie is closer to that than it is Book 1. The movie misses many of the hardships A has waking up in strangers bodies. Sometimes they’re on drugs. Sometimes they have awful parents. They can’t always get away to see Rhiannon.

• In the book, it’s A’s idea to blow off school, not Rhiannon’s. A was breaking their own rule by changing their host’s life. Rhiannon thought it was romantic. Here it seems like Rhiannon is more rebellious.

• Because we see more of Rhiannon’s perspective, we see more of her family and family drama that wasn’t present in the book. Which I didn’t really care for. Her parent’s issues felt out of place in this movie.

• In the book, A uses email to save information between days and to later communicate with Rhiannon. In the movie, they simply use Instagram to document who they were. They also apparently use text messaging, but it isn’t apparent how that works when A can’t physically own a cellphone.

• When A is in Nathan (Lucas Jade Zumann) and leaves him stranded at the side of the road at midnight, it sets off a chain of events that threaten A toward the end of the book and becomes a plot point in Book 3. Here in the movie Nathan and Reverend Pool are reduced to very minor plot points.

• In the movie when A is in suicidal Kelsea the solution is for A to force themself to stay in Kelsea’s body another day so they can talk to Kelsea’s dad about her depression. In the book, Kelsea’s dad comes home before midnight because being able to stay around longer is not something A can do in the book.

How it ends: A wakes up as one of Rhiannon’s classmates, Alexander (Owen Teague). Rhiannon convinces them to stick around longer than a day. And another. And another. Her friends notice they’re a couple now, and make comments like “I always thought you’d be a good couple.” At some point A is feeling guilty at stealing Alexander’s life. A suggests that Rhiannon continues to date Alexandar and A will leave for good. Rhiannon doesn't want A to leave, but A forces her to imagine a future, five or ten years down the line. When A starts waking up as a married person, or a person with kids. What if they wanted to have kids? There is a logistical problem with dating someone long term who can’t maintain the same body from day to day.

The next day A lets Alexander go and wakes up as Katie (Hannah Richardson). They get in a car and drive far away so they won’t wake up in Maryland anymore.

Rhiannon sees the real Alexander at school and they make small talk and walk together suggesting maybe she will date him now that A is gone.

The last shot is of A’s Instagram showing a sparkler - then the heart button lights up, suggesting that Rhiannon is still following them.

Random Notes:

• During Rhiannon’s first outing with A as Justin, A acts nothing like Justin. It's surprising that Rhiannon didn’t question them at this point, “Why are you acting so strange?” 

• How does A get Rhiannon’s number? They have Nathan’s phone and midnight is fast approaching. Rhiannon was about to get Nathan’s number when A stops her “you don’t want this number.”

• Rhiannon: “I’m surprised you know what a peasant blouse is.” A as James (Jacob Batalon): “Half of the time I wake up as a girl.”

• I love that the book and movie take place in Maryland. I live in Maryland. I used to live in both Laurel and Silver Spring (where a few of the scenes take place)

• Wait - who exactly is Rhiannon texting late at night? “You won’t read this until the morning.” The scene prior, A was George. The next morning A is Rhiannon.

• In the scene where Rhiannon takes A to her family’s cabin, I felt this was poor planning by A. A knows how hard it is each day to find Rhiannon. They should’ve prepared for the possibility that A couldn’t get away that next day.

• I’m glad the movies didn’t skip two scenes. The first one is a blind host (whose name I didn’t catch) and the second one is when A is Kelsea who is planning to commit suidice. The first one shows the many hardships A has to face waking up as a stranger in an unknown situation. The second one is a very emotional scene which allows Rhiannon to tell A that they have an obligation to make their hosts’ lives better.

• When A misses Alexander’s birthday, Alexander’s mother gives them a verbal grilling “That was a shitty, selfish thing you did.” While the mother was talking to Alexander, you can tell A felt like she was talking to them.

• A few other notes on casting. Justice Smith, who plays Justin, will later be cast in the trans-coded movie I Saw the TV Glow (2024). Ian Alexander, who plays Vic, also plays a transgender character, Gray Tal in Star Trek Discovery Seasons 3-5.

Overall Impression: It’s a good movie. Great cast. Mostly faithful to the source material. I enjoyed it and watched it twice. Its flaw is that it didn’t dive in deep enough into A’s experiences, like the book did. It also trimmed out the content that would have led to the sequel. In the book, we learn the Reverend Pool is a being just like A, which opens the book series up to examining more beings like A.

I do recommend the book though. Seeing A’s life is fascinating and the book gives you more of that. After the book and the movie, I can recommend Book 3, Another Day, which continues from the end of Book 1 (and the movie).