Tag Archives: Romcom

2026

New Generation is Served Sublime Romcom “Voicemails for Isabelle” 

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The latest iconic romcom lead character is a rising San Francisco culinary star, and it’s telling she whips up a fascinating banquet of bittersweet. Writer/director Leah McKendrick’s Voicemails for Isabelle (B+) centers Zoey Deutch’s Jill who regularly leaves phone messages for her late sister, Isabelle (Ciara Bravo), to cope with her grief, but the number has been reassigned to real estate agent Wes (Nick Robinson), who falls for Jill through following her outrageous and confessional messages recalling raunchy and romantic exploits her sick sibling could never experience herself. Deutch is absolutely wonderful as the multidimensional protagonist; viewers will relish her ribald humor and utter vulnerability. Robinson is winning as the sturdy love interest and gives his role some bite, even while his character falls victim to some of the shortcut tropes of the genre. McKendrick deftly explores themes of grief, and connection, with genuinely felt emotional beats and lots of nifty needle drops (the catalogue of pop star Robyn gets a distinctive showcase). The film also features a funny Nick Offerman as Jill’s mercurial culinary boss, providing additional reasons for our heroine to question if she’s really getting all she wants. Although there are some witty callbacks to Nora Ephron’s modern classics about crossed communications, McKendrick makes the milieu distinctly her own. Deutch and her director instinctively vibe here, and viewers will find this Netflix production gives us canny and convincing summer entertainment.

2026

Lopez and Goldstein Fill a Few Policy Guideline Loopholes in “Office Romance” Lark

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Plot holes meet policy guidelines in the watchable but barely credible romcom Office Romance (C), directed by Ol Parker, who gives his charming leads just enough trope to hang themselves. Brett Goldstein is both co-star and co-screenwriter, teamed with Jennifer Lopez as two executives maneuvering the mine fields of their airline company’s anti-fraternization rule despite immediate amorous attraction. This is the kind of movie in which any of the “meeting of the minds” obstacles could be solved with an email, so viewers will just need to suspend disbelief and enjoy the best qualities of the attractive leads endeavoring  to maintain their dignity while furtively schtupping in and around the HQ. Lopez’s character is hard-charging CEO of the family aviation business (Edward James Olmos briefly plays her father), and observant viewers will get a kick out of how poorly she portrays someone flying a plane and how inconsistently she gives off “dragon lady” vibes despite workplace denizens constantly cowering. Goldstein plays the company’s in-house lawyer rather shallowly and is best when he lets his freak fly with naughty language and throwaway asides. The chemistry between the leads is ok but certainly not off the charts, and thankfully the comedic sidekick Betty Gilpin is “serving” some droll bonbons to occupy the story’s awkward margins. Tony Hale and Bradley Whitford are both casualties in the slap-shot script, and it’s unclear what influence frequent Wes Anderson cinematographer Robert Yeoman had on the  saccharine, sanitized look of the film. Parker’s movie is a lark and ultimately reveals absolutely nothing about modern-day watercooler politics. It’s hard not to feast one’s eyes though on the luminous true movie star Jennifer Lopez, even in this vapid vehicle when she is (pun intended) not given much to work with. The film is best when it gets peculiar in wordplay or specific in its kinks, which isn’t too often. Anyone who signed up for a story in which the meet-cute involves a hard-on probably didn’t think they were mounting Hamlet and should report directly to HR.

2025, Rent It Tonight

Celine Song’s Smart “Materialists” a Heavenly Match for Hollywood Trio in NYC

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Writer/director Celine Song conjures career-best performances out of a trio of popular actors and serves up a sophomore triumph of a “rom dram” in the marvelous Materialists (A). The auteur with an eye and ear for the art of companionship delivers fresh takes on the nature of love and gives audiences many reasons to care while consistently questioning the conventions of coupling. It’s all more complicated than its seemingly routine log-line implies, as it’s ultimately an incredibly profound meditation on life and love. A young New York City matchmaker played by Dakota Johnson finds her business and personal life getting complicated as she finds herself torn between the perfect match, Pedro Pascal as a wealthy private equity exec, and her imperfect ex, Chris Evans as a struggling actor). The story takes its time to hit effective beats and positions its characters with precision to cast its spell. Johnson is wonderfully empathetic in the lead role, funny and vulnerable and so evocative of her famous mom Melanie Griffith in Working Girl. Lushly photographed by Shabier Kirchner who also lensed Song’s Past Lives, the heroine’s unexpectedly lonely travails in Manhattan are brilliantly  juxtaposed against the bevy of brides and brides-to-be celebrating blissfully in various backgrounds. Her character is obsessed with brokering relationships leveraging the math of modern dating, and the film questions many of the equations with pluck and logic. Song superbly stages dialogue-heavy sequences with spark and has a delicate way of depicting characters making connections as if they are the only two people in the whole world, which is quite a wonder in the concrete jungle. Pascal and Evans are both incredibly charming, despite the suspension of belief needed by viewers to imagine Evans without confidence. They both provide lots to love. Prepare for a few trick endings and some surprisingly moving subplots. This is a great summer date film for adults. After becoming the prominent purveyor of the modern love triangle, it will be fascinating what she does next.

2025, Rent It Tonight

“A Nice Indian Boy” Works Wonders

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It’s official: The romcom of the year is a gay Hindu love story hot off the film festival circuit. Roshan Sethi’s A Nice Indian Boy (A-) is an utter delight, with Karan Soni as a repressed doctor falling in love with a sentimental photographer played by Jonathan Groff. This sweet romance told in five sharp chapters disarms aspects of the central culture clash by making Groff’s character the adopted son of Indian parents, aligned in faith with an otherwise star-crossed lover. Soni’s droll, deadpan running meta commentary into his own courtship provides such an intensely cynical world view that he seemingly can only be conquered by Groff’s sunny demeanor. Two supporting women also steal the show including Sunita Mani as the protagonist’s lone sister and Zarna Garg as their mom. Garg in particular is hysterical in her attempts to understand her son’s orientation; she is wonderfully affecting in the role. The movie is full of lush colors with enjoyable music and Bollywood styled rituals. Its comedy is tinged with heartfelt and bittersweet lessons about how one can discover the love of a lifetime when least prepared. Even viewers with clinched hearts will find new capacity to love this movie and its lively characters.

Note: Thanks to Atlanta’s Out on Film and Tara Theatre for the early screening for an enthusiastic crowd!

2025

Bowen, Tran and Gladstone Rise to Occasion of “The Wedding Banquet” (2025)

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For his remake of the celebrated 1993 Taiwanese film of the same name, director Andrew Ahn brings something borrowed and something new to his 2025 The Wedding Banquet (B+), recently screened at Sundance and Out on Film festivals. Hoping to remain in the U.S., a gay heir to a family fortune played by a wily and winning Han Gi-chan proposes a green card marriage to his lesbian friend (Kelly Marie Tran, never better) in exchange for paying for her partner (a delightfully droll Lily Gladstone) to get in vitro fertilization treatment so the ladies can start a family. Complications arise when his grandmother (stern and wonderful Youn Yah-jung) surprises the friend circle (led by a sassy but remarkably restrained Bowen Yang) with plans for an extravagant Korean wedding ceremony. There are enough contemporary twists differing this new film from the original (including a hilarious Joan Chen as Tran’s uncommonly accepting mother) that the 2025 version plays more as revival and homage with similar high concept but a plot that feels organic to modern sensibilities. The ensemble is tremendous, with the film an apt showcase for actors who rarely get this kind of robust opportunity to fully embody richly drawn personas; and Ahn imbues the proceedings with a lithe and lived-in quality and some fun commentary further revealing character. It’s a fresh and funny take on sacrifices of all sizes in pursuit of particular forms of domestic bliss; and fresh on the heels of A Nice Indian Boy, it’s another enjoyable, emotional and elevated entry into the romcom form for modern households.

2024, Rent It Tonight

Richard Linklater and Glen Powell Play with Identities in Entertaining “Hit Man”

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Note: This film is superb on the big screen, where it plays a limited run in big cities before its June 7 Netflix premiere.

Director Richard Linklater is renowned for shaping revelatory performances reflecting on and rhapsodizing about the questions we ask and the stories we tell ourselves to reveal identity as a coping mechanism in a world marked by mighty constructs of time and perspective. He has long observed suburbanite denizens growing, adapting and changing as catalytic forces in the vast universe, and his terrific true crime romantic comedy hybrid Hit Man (A-) displays his contemplative daydreams in one of their most spry, shrewdly entertaining vessels yet. Charismatic star Glen Powell, who also co-wrote the script with Linklater, is pivotal to unlocking the Big Think with Everyman gusto as he portrays a mild-mannered professor and tech guy turned undercover police contractor posing as a hit man. It’s a little on the nose that our hero teaches philosophy; but like Indiana Jones, his side hustle building on arcane fascinations is really what makes the man. One of the film’s great features is the protagonist’s pleasure in trying on different personas; with costumes, wigs, prosthetics, novelty teeth and Powell’s acting alchemy, each of his hired guns embroiled in sting operations plays out like an apt allegory for finding himself. The film is funny and confounds expectations from the get-go, but it really gains its juice when the hit man for hire encounters a potential client in the form of gorgeous relative newcomer Adria Arjana, whose character wants her abusive husband dead. Sexy sparks fly, and it’s a free-for-all about what roles these magnetic stars will play as they maneuver a series of escalating trials of their own personal peculiarities in action. The screenplay crackles with insights and wry dialogue but soars on the hypnotic talents of Powell, who has never been better, and Arjana, who manages to steal scenes in her own right within a talented cast that also includes plum roles for Austin Amelio as a sleazy rival and spunky comedienne Retta as a witty teammate. Linklater could have more adeptly leveraged the film’s New Orleans locale, killed the darlings of a few redundant escapades and curtailed a few of the meta metaphors, but his fabulous film is largely the kind of fun adult Hollywood blockbuster they just don’t make anymore. At one point, the auteur includes a montage of glorious assassin sequences from cinematic history, and by golly this film creatively zigzags its way into that hallowed continuum with buoyant, unpredictable and seemingly effortless charm. As the film’s title character creates his own myth through moonlighting, galvanizing his alter ego in various forms toward the self of his destiny, it is tremendous fun to join him on this journey.

2024, Rent It Tonight

Steamy Streamer “The Idea of You” a Hit of Atlanta Film Festival, Now on Prime Video

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It’s time to say bye, bye, bye to myths about age gap relationships as a 40-year-old divorcee single mom embarks on a love affair with the 24-year-old frontman of a fictional hit boy band. Built on the star-powered shoulders of Anne Hathaway and Nicholas Galitzine, Michael Showalter’s rom-dram The Idea of You (B) is an enjoyable if not terribly original romp. Despite the fun and fantasy of the film’s premise, the director grounds the story in its lead characters’ humanity and the real-life complications dusted up in their unexpected collision. Hathaway is plucky and authentic as an art gallery curator, and Galitzine is a natural charmer and singer in his role as a superstar. Together they make for a steamy duo. The protagonist’s impulse to keep the romance secret including from her teenage daughter presents some silly subplots, while the through-line of self-doubt and sabotage is very relatable. Many finely observed moments abound in this mostly mainstream fare, and the leads buoy its believability. This movie is pure paperback poolside reading in filmed form and promises to make a delightful date night viewing.

2023

Done Dirty Down Under: Charming Leads of “Anyone But You” Trapped in Australia and Bad Script Together

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The song “Unwritten” by Natasha Bedingfield plays a supporting sonic part in Will Gluck’s romantic comedy Anything But You (C), which is fitting as the film feels so unwritten one might be surprised to find it wasn’t actually authored by AI. The two leads, Bea (Sydney Sweeney) and Ben (Glen Powell), despise one another and are stuck on a destination wedding holiday together in Sydney, Australia where they have to “fake it till they make it” to keep the peace. Occasional spurts of amusing physical comedy plus exasperating shifts in motivation keep the proceedings consistently uneven. After watching the movie, I read it was based on Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing (oh, Beatrice and Benedick and lots of overheard conversations!), which makes the lack of creativity in the formulaic, circuitous script even more dumbfounding. But the real feature here is the preternaturally attractive and charming lead couple at the heart of the movie; both give their all – bronze bodies, snappy come-ons and comebacks – to propel the paltry plot. Otherwise the film wastes both rom-com veterans such as Dermot Mulroney and Rachel Griffiths as well as its exotic port of call; there’s a scene in which hikers look over what’s supposed to be a gorgeous view of a valley,  but it’s a quite unremarkable view of basic treetops.  Because somehow, despite their unmotivated actions, we still find ourselves rooting for Sweeney and Powell; and the movie gets a little better, a little more loose and limber, toward the end. It’s all a bit of a voyeuristic dirty window into a charismatic screen couple in need of better agents.

2023, Rent It Tonight

Political Romcom “Red, White & Royal Blue” a Soapy Same-Sex Sensation

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This summer’s great wish fulfillment romance is so high stakes, it just might cause an international incident. Taylor Zakhar Perez and Nicholas Galitzine play the U.S. president’s son and a British prince, respectfully, who find themselves falling in love in Matthew López’s winning romcom Red, White & Royal Blue (B+). Considering their roles as high-profile public figures, the young men who Meet Cute at a U.K. wedding party must keep their burgeoning relationship a secret at all costs. The lead actors are dashing and often amusing in their earnest roles, and López grounds the plot with enough political accuracy and contours about making history for one’s culture or community to make the cross-continental complications fairly credible. Strong supporting performances include Uma Thurman as the Texas-accented president and Stephen Fry as a smug member of the monarchy. The film, available on Prime Video, is a triumph of representation and a jolly good time in its own right.

2022, Rent It Tonight

“Fire Island” is a Fierce and Funny GBLTQIA+ Comedy Now Available on Hulu

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Now streaming on Hulu.

Andrew Ahn’s Fire Island (B) is a new take on Pride and Prejudice centered on a group of D-list friends and their encounters with an elite household in the titular famed gay vacation destination. Joel Kim Booster, who also wrote the screenplay, and SNL comedian Bowen Yang are authentic and witty in the lead roles (based on Jane Austen’s Elizabeth and Jane Bennet characters, respectively) supported by a warm, winning and understated Margaret Cho in the Mrs. Bennet role. Conrad Ricamora and James Scully are the Darcy and Charles updates of the literary reimagining and are also committed to their performances. It’s actually uncanny how well the Austen archetypes translate to the LGBTQIA+ milieu, and the update is also a coup for Asian representation. The film has fun with remixing both literary and romcom conventions while sending up the devil-may-care attitudes of the inlet getaway, including some cautionary subplots in the statuesque form of Zane Phillips as a charming rogue in the ensemble. The melodrama is a bit uneven at times but the repartee between the co-leads is consistently strong and appropriately sentimental. There are also some pop confections on the soundtrack including covers of Wonka tune “Pure Imagination” and “Sometimes” by Britney Spears. It’s an elevated escape.

2017, Rent It Tonight

“The Big Sick” is a Strong Dose of Dark Comedy

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With Michael Showalter’s The Big Sick (B+), cinema catches up a bit to television as small screen cast and collaborators bring an outsider cross-cultural sensibility to the traditional Hollywood romantic comedy formula. Star and semiautobiographical co-screenwriter Kumail Nanjiani brings a mild-mannered and endearing quality to his lead performance as a Pakistani Muslim stand-up comic who falls for a woman decidedly outside of his arranged marriage options. Zoe Kazan delivers warmth and wit to the role of the real-life psychiatry student for whom Nanjiani finds himself smitten. Holly Hunter and Ray Romano get some nice bits as her parents, who arrive at a critical juncture in the relationship. The dialogue is largely droll, inventive and natural and the mix of comedy and drama kept at lofty levels. Only in the final act does the film sputter a bit and fall prey to romcom clichés. Overall it’s a winning ensemble and a joyous time, filled with moments that feel new and relatable on screen.