Netflix And Chill: Office Romance (2026)

If you're not a fan of "the c-word" then you may not enjoy Office Romance as much as I did. I've always found it to be the strongest of the swear words, but it's also used much more casually in Scotland than anywhere else in the United Kingdom, in my experience. That aside, Office Romance is a rom-com that generally maintains a nice balance between the rom and the com, and then adds some extra sauce for some unexpected belly laughs.

Jennifer Lopez is Jackie, the CEO of Air Cruz (and also a qualified pilot). Her company has a strict policy against any relationships between colleagues, which should help her fight back against a frivolous lawsuit that has competitors accusing her of winning contracts by sleeping with people she is conducting business with. The other thing that should help her fight back is Daniel Blanchflower (Brett Goldstein), an in-house lawyer who is pretty great at his job. Unfortunately, Jackie and Daniel start to feel a very strong connection, which would ruin everything. It won't be bad if they can keep everything secret, but the likes of heavily-pregnant Sydney Bloom (Betty Gilpin), who has been alongside Jackie for many many years, can definitely sense something different in the workplace.

While director Ol Parker does a perfectly fine job behind the camera, and somehow manages to deliver something that feels like a proper film, as opposed to the Netflix feature products we've seen landing on there so often (which, to be fair, seems to be something that, with the likes of this and Apex, is changing for the better). It's the screenplay, co-written by Goldstein and Joe Kelly, that really makes this work though, working with plenty of familiar rom-com tropes while allowing the leads to feel like more well-rounded and sexual creatures than the more chaste figures we so often see in this kind of thing.

Goldstein also does well to have faith in himself when it comes to his main acting role. I have enjoyed him for some time now, but he's not who you might think of first when you envision a rom-com with Jennifer Lopez as the female lead. It works very well though, his Britishness and awkwardness juxtaposed with everyone around him in a way that makes you believe why Lopez would start to notice him. As for our Jenny From The Block, she can do a rom-com role in her sleep, and she gets to play a fantastic mix of professional, desirable, and passionate here. It's also great to see a film where the female lead is a decade older than her male counterpart, although Lopez doesn't look even close to her actual age. Gilpin is a hoot in her main supporting role, giving scowls and glares to almost everyone around her, Mary Wiseman is entertainingly over-sharing in most of her scenes, Tony Hale is a lot of fun as a put-upon HR worker, and you also get the likes of Jodie Whittaker, Edward James Olmos, Bradley Whitford, Amy Sedaris, Roger Bart, Will Sasso, and a few other familiar faces, filling out the enjoyably varied and sprawling cast. 

This is a perfect film for couples to enjoy together, which is what the best rom-coms should be. There are two leads you will find it easy to root for, an enjoyable storyline with enough obstacles to make things difficult for everyone without ever making things complicated, and a lot of great gags. Again, it won't work for those averse to some very bad language, and there's one visual gag that is hilarious because of how shocking and unexpected it is, and the revelations about the character played by Jodie Whittaker seem a bit odd and out of place, admittedly, but this is one I will happily recommend to most people looking for an enjoyable way to spend just under two hours. 

8/10

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The Sheep Detectives (2026)

I received funny looks from people last week every time I mentioned the fact that I was heading to the cinema to see The Sheep Detectives. Nobody seemed to think that it sounded like an enjoyable and watchable film. That's their loss. The Sheep Detectives is sweet, funny, and manages to hang everything on a central murder mystery that feels as well-constructed as it is comprehensible for younger viewers who may have a lot less experience with the template being used.

Hugh Jackman plays a shepherd/farmer named George Hardy, happiest when spending time with his sheep. He reads mystery novels to them every day, oblivious to the fact that the animals actually understand everything he's saying, and often have their own conversations about the plot when he's then taken himself off to bed for the night. Which ends up being good practice for them all when George is found dead one morning. Murdered. It's doubtful that the local nice-but-dim policeman, Officer Tim Derry (Nicholas Braun), will crack the case, which means it's up to the sheep. Lily (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) is arguably the smartest one, but she's helped by the likes of Mopple (Chris O'Dowd), Wool-Eyes (Rhys Darby), Cloud (Regina Hall), Sir Ritchfield (Patrick Stewart), Zora (Bella Ramsey), and Sebastian (Bryan Cranston). There are enough suspects in the local village, and the population has a few extra bodies in the shape of George's daughter, Rebecca (Molly Gordon), a lawyer named Lydia Harbottle (Emma Thompson), and a small-time journalist hoping for a big break (Nicholas Galitzine).

Based on a novel, "Three Bags Full", by Leonie Swann, this has been adapted into screenplay form by the talented Craig Mazin. He knows what people will want from this, and he delivers. The central investigation doesn't seem to cheat, there's a satisfying reveal and explanation that would make Agatha Christie proud, and you get plenty of moments that just have lambs being cute, sheep being amusingly sheep-ish, and a perfect mix of entertainment that displays danger one minute and cosy safety the next.

Director Kyle Balda has spent the last 15 years or so helming animated shorts and features, which makes him a good pick for something that relies on a flock of main characters created by, or enhanced with, top-notch computer work. You could tell me that 90% of the sheep onscreen here were entirely CGI and I would believe you. You could also tell me that 90% of the sheep onscreen here were entirely real and I would believe you just as readily. The impressive thing is that it's hard to see any "join", and a lot of that comes from the steady guiding hand of Balda.

While the voice cast all do great work, many of them are such a good fit for their characters that I suspect many viewers will struggle to place them until the end credits roll. Aside from those already mentioned, and lead duties are roughly shared between Louis-Dreyfus, O'Dowd, and Cranston, there's also a very enjoyable performance from Brett Goldstein, pulling double duty as the voices of Reggie and Ronnie, two sheep happiest when given permission to ram into things. Thankfully, the live-action cast members do enough to justify stealing screentime away from the sheep. Gordon is as easy to like as she usually is, Thompson is a lot of fun, Galitzine gets to upset a few people with his questions, and Braun manages to be sweet and amusing, AND maintains a pretty decent English accent throughout.

It takes a little while to acclimatise to how everything is presented, but most viewers will find that they soon start ignoring the artifice in favour of the characters and the unfolding mystery. There's a helpful, and lovely, score by Christophe Beck, decent pacing that makes the 109-minute runtime pass by quickly enough, and a perfect handling of tone that allows for some timely tears and tension in between the frequent chuckles. I hope that more and more people will eventually be convinced to give this a go, and it may well turn out to be the most delightful feature film of 2026.

8/10

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