Tag Archives: Rom-com

Bros – Movie Review

Posted on by
2

TL;DR – While incredibly funny at times, it loses its momentum under the weight of the narrative.    

Rating: 3 out of 5.

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

Disclosure – I was invited to a press screening of this film.

Bobby Lieber records the podcast.

Bros Review –

If there is one genre that has almost standardised its narrative, it is the Romantic Comedy. For better or worse, when you go into one of these films, especially the plethora of made-for-tv films that come out during the holidays, you can probably chart the course of the movie in the first five minutes. The business lady will discover she wants a family too. The widower will find love in the most unlikely [i.e. very likely] place. Old lovers, now foes, will become lovers again. This is not necessarily bad. You can still do great things with a tried-and-true formula, but I am always looking for a film that could break through those models, and we might have just such a film today.    

So to set the scene, Bobby Lieber (Billy Eichner) is a podcast host of The Eleventh Brick at Stonewall and has been chosen to be the curator of a new National LGBTQ+ History Museum in Manhattan. It is his dream job, and his complete focus, which, given he is incredibly single, works well for him. He prides himself on his independence, even if that means some awkward hook-ups along the way. However, one night at a nightclub, he connects with Aaron (Luke Macfarlane), who ghosts him, un-ghosts him, and then ghosts him again. It is perplexing, but for some reason, it makes Bobby more interested in discovering just what his deal is.

Continue reading →

Movie Review – Falling Inn Love

Posted on by
2

TL;DR – A really solid rom-com with a kiwi twist.   

Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

Falling Inn Love. Image Credit: Netflix.

Review –

As time marches on there are three things that remain inevitable, death, taxes, and Netflix will drop another adorable romantic comedy on you when you least expect it. Now while we hope your day is not filled with the first two, the question that we will try to answer is if it should be filled with the third.

So to set the scene, Gabriela (Christina Milian) works in an investment firm in San Francisco and is getting ready for her first big pitch only to get stuffed over by her dude-frat-bro colleagues. Well, time to regroup, but then the company she works just collapsed and then she finally realised that her wanker of a boyfriend has severe commitment issues. Well time to smother your sorrows in ice cream and then sign up to what is clearly a scam to win an inn in New Zealand. Well surprise she won the inn, but like all things the profile pictures on the internet can be misleading.

Continue reading →

Movie Review – Top End Wedding

Posted on by
5

TL;DR – Joyous, Funny, Beautiful, and Moving.     

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

Top End Wedding. Image Credit: Universal.

Review –

As a guy, it might not be kosher, but I love a good romantic comedy, one that you can sit back, laugh, but also be moved by the characters. However, this is a genre that has kind of been on the backburner in recent years with only Crazy Rich Asians being the one to come to mind when I think of good works to draw from. Today, thankfully, I get to add another film to this list with the joy that is Top End Wedding.

So to set the scene, we open in on a couple living in Adelaide who are both having very important days. Lauren (Miranda Tapsell) is having her first major client meeting and if it goes well she will get a promotion for the firm she works in under Hampton (Kerry Fox) who is often referred to a Cruella. Meanwhile, Ned (Gwilym Lee) is trying to live up to his father’s memory in the courtroom but finds the job difficult because he has no passion for it. Well, Ned decides to quit his job and proposes to Lauren, the only catch is that Hampton will only give Lauren 10 days off for the wedding, as in the next 10 days, and Lauren has always dreamed of having her wedding in Darwin where she is from. While this should be easy to put together, things take a turn when she arrives home to find her father Trevor (Huw Higginson) and mother Daffy (Ursula Yovich) had recently separated and no one knows where her mother is.

Continue reading →

Movie Review – The Perfect Date

Posted on by
Reply

TL;DR – While it is a bit stodgy at times, it has a real heart to it and an interesting premise.   

Score – 3.5 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is no post-credit scene

The Perfect Date. Image Credit: Netflix.

Review –

In recent times, one strength that Netflix has really leaned into is producing quality rom-coms a genre that had been left wanting in the cinematic landscape recently. Indeed we have even been getting the highs of To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before and given that our lead here with the impressive eyebrows is finding a niche in this genre I was interested to see how it would go. Well, it was fine, but the more it meant on the more it felt like while it had an interesting premise, it didn’t quite stick the landing in parts.  

So to set the scene, as high school is coming to the end, the world is finding out what to do next. For Brooks Rattigan (Noah Centineo), it trying to get into Yale, he wants to change the world, even though he has no idea what it is that he needs to change. He has the chance to go to a public college but he wants to go to Yale but how is he going to pay for it or even get in. Things change one day when one of the rich kids at his school Reece (Zak Steiner) was lamenting that he had to take his cousin Celia (Laura Marano) to a high school social and Brooks steps in because he needs money. During the ‘date’ Celia mentions that he would make a great stand-in boyfriend, well one app made by his friend Murph (Odiseas Georgiadis) later and a new business is made.

Continue reading →

Movie Review – Crazy Rich Asians

Posted on by
5

TL;DR – During the film, I along with the whole cinema, laughed, cried, gasp ‘oh no you didn’t and I can’t remember a film that had that same reaction

Score – 5 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is a mid-credit scene

Crazy Rich Asians. Image Credit: Warner Bros.

Review –

There are some films that simply be being made are making a statement of intent. These are films like last year’s Black Panther (see review) and Wonder Women (see review), films that “conventional” Hollywood wisdom states that they shouldn’t be made because they won’t make any money. There is a long history of information coming from focus groups that people are not interested in films helmed by women and people of colour, information which is inevitable proven wrong time after time when the box office numbers are released. To put this in perspective, the last live-action film from Hollywood to feature a predominately Asian cast was The Joy Luck Club twenty-five years ago in 1993. This means a whole generation of people have grown up and not seen their stories or people like themselves up on the big screen, and well folks this is why representation matter. So while Crazy Rich Asians is important for just existing, it is even more power from the fact that it is also a fantastic film in its own right and one of my films of the year so far.

Continue reading →

Movie Review – The Breaker Upperers

Posted on by
5

TL;DR – At times hilarious, at times incredible farcical, and at times a deeply moving look at the trials of friendship.

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There is a post-credit scene

The Breaker Upperers. Image Credit: Piki Films/Madman.

Review –

For a long time, there has been this growing bubble of particular dry absurdist comedy coming out of New Zealand. You see it in the work of Taika Waititi, Jemaine Clement, Bret McKenzie, Rhys Darby, Rachel House, and also some of Peter Jackson’s early films. These are films that mix comedy and emotional understanding in equal measures. Whenever one of these movies like Hunt for the Wilderpeople (see review) or Hibiscus & Ruthless (see review) make it across the ditch I always really look forward to seeing it. Well, today we get the chance to look at a new entry into this wonderful genre The Breaker Upperers, from the comedic team of Madeleine Sami and Jackie van Beek.

Continue reading →

Movie Review – Love, Simon

Posted on by
1

TL;DR – A great story about love and everything that it takes to get there.

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Post-Credit Scene – There was no post-credit scene

Love Simon

Review –

Your last year in high school is difficult at the best of times, but when you have a secret that could rip your life apart, it adds to it a bit. In Love, Simon, that secret is that the titular Simon (Nick Robinson) is gay, and he hasn’t told anyone yet. So today we are going to look at a story that is part coming of age, part love story, and party mystery novel.

Continue reading →

Movie Review – Ali’s Wedding

Posted on by
3

TL;DR – A good reminder that we are all united as one because we all do stupid, stupid, stupid, things for love

Score – 4 out of 5 stars

Ali's Wedding. Image Credit: Madman.

Review –

I’ve been sitting here looking at my screen on and off for the last hour wondering how to start this review. This is such an important film, a real water shed moment for Australian cinema, but how do you properly articulate that without sounding overbearing. To add to this, I am a white Australian with not a lot of experience with some of the cultural and religious iconography, this means that I am desperately trying not to accidentally say something truly stupid. So I hope you will excuse the lack of coherence and come with me as we jump into the world of Ali’s Wedding.

Continue reading →

Movie Review – Hampstead

Posted on by
Reply

TL;DR – Beautiful and charming, a fun look into that quirkiness that is classic Britannia, a great date night film

Score – 3 out of 5 stars

Hampstead. Image Credit: Entertainment One.

Review –

What happens when your life is falling into a hole of others making, what happens when the world is against you and you just want to be left in peace, what happens when worlds collide, this is the story of Hampstead. Hampstead is part romantic comedy, part comment of the class divisions in Brittan, and part legal drama, but it is all heart.

Continue reading →

Movie Review – The Big Sick

Posted on by
6

TL;DR – Emotional, yet funny, Completely relatable, yet deeply personal, a look into what makes us who we are.

Score – 4.5 out of 5 stars

The Big Sick. Image Credit: Amazon Studios.

Review –

So The Big Sick was one of those delightful films where I knew nothing about it before I went to see it, which is rare in a time where not only are movie trailers plastered everywhere, but they routinely spoil the films they are promoting. To be fair I had seen one clip, the Thanksgiving Day parade, and you could infer things from the poster, but in this day and age that’s as close to not knowing as you can get. Also, I was going to give this one a pass because I’ve not found the Rom-Com genre to be anything but rehashes of the same material, for years now. So I was completely surprised, because The Big Sick turned out to be nothing like the film I was expecting to see, I’ve not been this surprised since The Dressmaker (review).

Continue reading →