Netflix And Chill: Set It Up (2018)

There was a time, up until very recently actually, when I hadn't really taken much notice of Zoey Deutch. I didn't view her as a standout in supporting roles, I didn't realise she was the daughter of Lea Thompson and Howard Deutch, and there was nothing in her filmography that seemed to pique my interest. That's all changed now. Not only have I recently watched a few films in the past few weeks that have featured Deutch, I've also been completely won over by her ability to move between comedy and drama with a very obvious likeability. 

Deutch plays Harper in this, a young woman struggling with the constant demands from her workaholic boss, Kirsten (Lucy Liu). Glen Powell is Charlie, a man who works in the same building as Harper and has the same problem with his boss, Rick (Taye Diggs). Once they meet and share their woes, Harper and Charlie eventually come to realise that their lives could get easier if they can set up a love match between their bosses. It should be easy enough, considering how much Harper and Charlie plan and maintain the schedules of their respective bosses. All they need to do is keep pushing them together.

One of only a few feature films directed by Claire Scanlon, and one of the better screenplays from writer Katie Silberman, Set It Up is easygoing and fun for those who don't mind watching something that follows a very well-known formula. The laughs may not be big, but they're impressively consistent throughout the 105-minute runtime, and the whole thing is carried on the shoulders of the two leads, as well as some great supporting cast members. So your enjoyment of it is going to depend on just how much you like the leads, and I am certainly a big fan of both by now.

Both Deutch and Powell are on top form, effortlessly working so well together that their journey to the expected big moments in the finale is satisfying and very easy to root for. There's enough friction between them, and enough obstacles, but no potential problem is insurmountable. Both Liu and Diggs are also doing great work, frequently being so enjoyable that it might make you wonder (as I did) why they never got that one major role to insert them into the mainstream collective consciousness. Joan Smalls is entertainingly vain and selfish, Meredith Hagner plays a good BFF, and Pete Davidson is a lot of fun in his small supporting role, but everyone works so well here because they're complementing two leads who already make the movie well worth your time.

It could be a bit funnier, it could spend a bit more time delivering some very heightened romance, and it could work harder to subvert the rom-com tropes that are being commented on by our two leads as they attempt to force a meet-cute and develop a relationship between two unaware individuals. I admit that there's a lot that could have been better. That didn't stop me from watching most of it play out with a doofy smile on my face though. I suspect most won't enjoy it as much as I did, but I still recommend it nonetheless. 

6/10

If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A subscription/follow costs nothing. All links are HERE.
It also costs nothing to like/subscribe to the YouTube channel attached to the podcast I am part of - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCErkxBO0xds5qd_rhjFgDmA
Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews

Netflix And Chill: Ladies First (2026)

If Ladies First had been made in the 1980s then it might seem like something fun and harmless. It could make use of some comedy stars to have some fun with the deep-rooted problems in a patriarchal society that would seem ripe for an overhaul. As a film released in 2026, however, it's just a depressing reminder of how little progress has been made throughout modern history. And it doesn't have the right lead actor needed to make it an amusing enough distraction.

Sacha Baron Cohen plays a male chauvinist pig named Damien Sachs. Working for a company that needs some better optics, he promotes the talented Alex Fox (Rosamund Pike), but doesn't really want to take note of her good ideas. He doesn't really want her input on anything at all, because he and his colleagues are used to completely ignoring women unless they're trying to sleep with them. That becomes a big problem when Damien hits his head and wakes up in a world where the roles are reversed. Women are in charge, and he will be trapped there until he can figure out a way to get into a top management position.

I actually wondered why I didn't have more fun with this, but writing out that plot summary has clarified things for me. This is a Netflix film based on another Netflix film, "Je Ne Suis Pas Un Homme Facile", which may not seem like a great idea, but there's just about enough talent behind and in front of the camera to make it work. If only anyone involved actually made some effort.

Director Thea Sharrock doesn't do much to liven things up, settling for a reliance on numerous production design gags (various ads using males in very little clothing, Burger Queen, etc.), and writers Natalie Krinsky, Cinco Paul, and Katie Silberman seem so busy having fun with the role reversal concept that they forget to pack in more gags or any storyline that viewers may actually care about. Everything about this, from the obviousness of the jokes to the character names (male character names Sachs, female is Fox, and even a character our lead needs to pursue as he tries to get promotion is named Chase), is lazy.

There are better performances from most of the other players, but Cohen cannot make his main character work, which is a big negative. He can be cocky and rude, believably sexist for most of the runtime, but there's nothing tempering that, either because of the writing or because Cohen cannot manage to add a touch of honey to his sharpness. Pike is much better, but even she is unable to do anything truly great with what she's given. Fiona Shaw presents a riff on a character that she's done a number of times before (she's very good at being the polite Brit who also happens to be struggling to contain a burning passion), Richard E. Grant is amusing enough as he portrays "Pigeon Man", and there are decidedly okay turns from Emily Mortimer, Tom Davis, Charles Dance, Bill Paterson, and Kathryn Hunter, to namecheck the main faces I recognised.

I had heard bad things about this before I pressed play, but I figured that it was just being dismissed by people who weren't in the mood for some silliness. I was wrong. Silly isn't bad. Silly and lazy and unfunny is bad. Did I smirk a couple of times? Yes. Did I laugh enough times to be able to rate this as a comedy? Not even close.

3/10

If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A subscription/follow costs nothing.
It also costs nothing to like/subscribe to the YouTube channel attached to the podcast I am part of - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCErkxBO0xds5qd_rhjFgDmA
Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews

Prime Time: Don't Worry Darling (2022)

Now that we've all moved on from all of the behind-the-scenes madness that seemed to plague the production and release of Don't Worry Darling, it's possible to watch the film and review it simply for the film it is. Okay, I still remember the wild speculation when everyone thought Harry Styles spat on Chris Pine, look it up if you somehow missed it, but it was very easy for me to clear my mind (insert "far too easy" gag here) and finally find out whether or not the movie was deserving of any of the compliments and criticism it received.

Florence Pugh plays Alice, a 1950s housewife who ensures that the household is an oasis of domestic bliss for whenever her husband, Jack (Harry Styles), returns from his daily work at a mysterious desert-based facility. This is all done in service of Frank (Chris Pine), a benevolent leader who Alice starts to view with suspicion. Then things start getting strange, leading to Alice questioning her entire reality.

The second film directed by Olivia Wilde, reteaming with writer Katie Silberman (who also worked out the story with Carey Van Dyke and Shane Van Dyke), Don't Worry Darling is actually, and it gives me no pleasure to say this, painfully derivative and crushingly dull. Many viewers will spend the runtime waiting for one or two reveals that, when they do come along, lead to shrugs, at best, ahead of any wide eyes and dropped jaws. In fact, the third act is so bad that I almost willed it to be a parody.

Pugh is as good as she always is, so that is a plus, and Pine is enjoyable in his role, and there are decent supporting turns from Wilde, KiKi Layne, Gemma Chan, Nick Kroll, Timothy Simons, and Sydney Chandler. You also get a very brief cameo from the legendary Dita Von Teese, who adds a touch of burlesque elegance for just a few seconds. The weak element is Styles, who is unable to show the full range that is required for his character. He's perfectly fine when in the mode that has him closest to a '50s gent, but not so good when he is required to show cracks in his facade.

There's a good idea buried in this, one about some people preferring to be controlled in a way that allows them to maintain a personal bubble of domestic bliss, but it's far from original, and the 123-minute runtime isn't justified by such a disappointingly thin plot. I could recommend you half a dozen films much better than this, and I could even recommend you a few worse films that are at least more entertaining. It turns out that all of the drama that happened when this was released was actually more interesting than anything that Wilde put into the film, sadly.

4/10

If you have enjoyed this, or any other, review on the blog then do consider the following ways to show your appreciation. A subscription/follow costs nothing, and ALL of the links you need are here - https://linktr.ee/raidersofthepodcast
Or you may have a couple of quid to throw at me, in Ko-fi form - https://ko-fi.com/kevinmatthews
Or Amazon is nice at this time of year - https://www.amazon.co.uk/hz/wishlist/ls/Y1ZUCB13HLJD?ref_=wl_share

Mubi Monday: Booksmart (2019)

Booksmart is a fun film, full of energy, that easily sits alongside a number of other teen comedies from the past few decades. Unlike many of those, it was directed and written by women, and also features two wonderful female lead characters (played by Beanie Feldstein and Kaitlyn Dever).

The set-up is quite simple. Molly (Feldstein) and Amy (Dever) have made a number of sacrifices as they aim to get the grades required for their favoured colleges. But Molly hears a number of people talking about their future plans, which leads her to the realisation that a lot of people had the same aim, they just managed to maintain a better life-work balance throughout high school. Determined to use their last night to make up for years of missing out, Molly and Amy set out to find the location of the hottest party being attended by everyone else in their school year. And so begins a night that will see the young women test their limits, test some drugs, and test their friendship.

Although very much female-centric, Booksmart works brilliantly because it is very much focused on the teen experience, the years spent under intense pressure to please so many people (peers, parents, teachers) before you learn that it's best to just please yourself. Molly and Amy start the movie thinking that they have to live their lives a certain way, which becomes less and less true as they become more comfortable just being themselves.

The script, written by Emily Halpern, Sarah Haskins, Susanna Fogel, and Katie Silberman, is arguably the best work that any of them have done. It's smart, full of scenes that have an honesty at the heart of them, and very funny. And one sequence involving a pair of Barbie dolls is hilariously surreal in a way that recalls the anarchic silliness of Better Off Dead... (an '80s teen movie that remains woefully underseen).

Olivia Wilde does a great job in her feature directorial debut. She has a number of shorts to her credit, and has obviously been able to observe the film-making process during her many acting jobs, but this is an accomplished and assured first feature, undoubtedly helped by her industry connections (it's hard to imagine the likes of her partner, Jason Sudeikis, or Will Forte and Lisa Kudrow taking on supporting roles otherwise, although you could also argue that a good enough script would have won them over).

Feldstein and Dever are great in their roles, with the former bringing more of the energy into most scenes while the latter is having a more difficult time adjusting to a new level of social interaction and self-identity. Molly Gordon does great work in her small role, Skyler Gisondo and Billie Lourd are wonderfully over the top as two rich kids who find it easy to buy company, but not so easy to make real friends, and Diana Silvers has a couple of very funny scenes as a partygoer who ends up seeing Dever in a more vulnerable state than either would have wanted, and Jessica Williams gets to play a supercool teacher who is rooting for our leads throughout.

Although this is typically rambunctious stuff on the surface, Booksmart excels, like all of the best teen movies, because there's a lot more to it. And a large part of it is truth. As silly as many moments seem, it also nails the maelstrom of feelings that can rush through any teenager's mind every time a major decision has to be made. That decision could be about higher education, or it could about what to wear to a party. It could be about love or lust, or it could be about how far you go to support a friend. Every one is just as important as the other. Well, that is how it feels at the time. Booksmart nails that feeling, and more.

9/10

The movie will be available here.
Americans can get it here.

Netflix And Chill: Isn't It Romantic (2019)

When I first heard about Isn't It Romantic I thought that it was going to cover the same ground as They Came Together. It wasn't. Instead, I got something that felt like a cross between I Feel Pretty and The Final Girls (which was, funnily enough, also from this director, Todd Strauss-Schulson).

Rebel Wilson plays a young woman named Natalie. Natalie is an architect, although a lot of people around her seems to treat her as a general dogsbody. Natalie is also quite the cynic, and has been taught from a young age (as we see in the opening scene) to always keep in mind that rom-coms are just nonsense, full of things that would never happen to someone like herself. Which makes it worse when, one day after struggling with a mugger and running into a metal beam, Natalie wakes up in hospital, and wakes up in the middle of what seems to be her own romantic comedy. Will this allow her to learn some kind of valuable lesson, or is it just going to be an endurance test until she can figure out a way back to normality.

A lot of Rebel Wilson performances depend very much on how you feel about Rebel Wilson. I tend to enjoy her work but each subsequent movie highlights the fact that she always plays things the same way. That can work, and you could say the same of her male co-star here (Adam Devine, who plays the smug moron-cum-douchebag in 90% of the movies he has done), but it's not something to rely on forever. She's fine here, and given decent support from a core group that includes Devine (the best friend who might end up being more than that), Liam Hemsworth (very . . .  "beguiling" . . .  as the hunky love interest), Priyanka Chopra (woman who Devine falls for, providing standard complication), Betty Gilpin (friendly work colleague in the real world, acidic workplace enemy underused in the rom-com world), and Brandon Scott Jones (popping up to be the subgenre-requisite gay BFF).

No one in the cast stands out as a bad choice. The big problem here lies elsewhere. The script. Written by Erin Cardillo, Dana Fox, and Katie Silberman, Isn't It Romantic has some funny and clever moments here and there, especially when it comes to censored swearing and transitions that imply sex without showing anything happening, but everything centres on a central idea that doesn't work. Wilson knows all of the tropes, and rolls her eyes at all of them, yet she goes along with them all while commenting on her displeasure. This allows the film to underline everything in every scene, making it less fun. Not only do viewers have everything spoon-fed to them while being bashed on the head with a rom-com rubber mallet, they also get constantly reminded that what they're watching is nonsense and (essentially) without any value. Where the movies mentioned in the first paragraph had a certain sweetness and optimism at the heart of them, whether you liked them or not, this has a cynicism in line with the main character, and that sours what could have been a very enjoyable rom-com that wore some layers of cool meta clothing.

Strauss-Schulson does a good job with the direction, ensuring that this always feels like your standard rom-com, from the visual style of each scene to frequent use of uplifting pop standards on the soundtrack. The film feels infused by every modern rom-com, helped there by the script, but nothing can quite outweigh the misjudged tone. I would have liked to laugh along with this film, instead it feels like they're pointing at things for you to laugh at.

There are laughs to be had, and a couple of fun musical numbers, but this is ultimately a disappointment, despite making a very good point during the grand finale.

5/10

Americans may order it here.