Five Feet Apart (2019) review

Two teens with cystic fibrosis staying in the same hospital, Stella (Haley Lu Richardson) and Will (Cole Sprouse), start getting feelings for each other, but Will is infected with deadly bacteria (B. cepacia, which is rare) which means the two of them can't get ... close (hence the title).  There have been a slew of these 'kids seeking romance despite terminal illness' movies of late - including The Fault in Our Stars (thanks, John Green), Then Came You, Me and Earl and the Dying Girl - and each one tries to top the previous one as to how gaudy and shameless it can be: it's the easiest and cheapest possible way to make a movie, and when drama flags the screenwriters can just have the young ones cough hard and appear pale and talk about their inevitable demise for audience points (or even kill off side characters, like Moises Arias' Poe).   Instead of trying to legitimately earn empathy, they wring it out of you.  It would be a zero without Haley Lu and Cole, who at least try to make it mean something.