Regretting You (2025)

Another romantic drama based on a novel from Colleen Hoover, who seems to be quite the hot commodity when it comes to movie adaptations at the moment, Regretting You is a film that I didn't entirely dislike, but I couldn't fully enjoy. I tried to figure out exactly what the film was doing to turn me off, but I couldn't out my finger on it. Then it struck me. This is a film focused on a couple of teens that spends far too much of the runtime also showing us the lives of the adults. And it almost infantilises those adults, turning them into people simply cosplaying their own teen storylines alongside the actual teens.

Mckenna Grace is Clara Grant, daughter of Morgan (Allison Williams) and Chris (Scott Eastwood). Clara is going through some standard teen stuff, although that now includes an interesting development after an encounter with Miller Adams (Mason Thames), but she doesn't always want to confide in her mother. That's why she is happy to also have her Aunt Jenny (Willa Fitzgerald), who appears to be happily married to Jonah (Dave Franco). Happiness is fleeting though, and Clara has her world turned upside-down when her father and her aunt both die in a car crash, creating a lot of pain and a need to reframe every memory held by Clara, Morgan, and Joshua.

Directed by Josh Boone (who has, let's say, mixed results throughout his filmography), this is standard stuff for anyone who knows what they're getting into. If you're familiar with Colleen Hoover, or if you've seen any of the films based on the works of Nicholas Sparks, then you'll know the mix of melodrama and gentle humour here. Whatever is happening is always BIG, it's love and hate stuff, life and death, and there are many silver linings to be seen amidst the gathering stormclouds.

Writer Susan McMartin struggles to adapt material that may well work better on the page, considering the time jump that starts things off and the frankly bizarre relationship complications that we watch playing out, but at least the younger cast members make the most of things.

Both Grace and Thames are performers I have enjoyed watching over the past few years, and seeing them used as nominal leads here is more satisfying than anything else in the film. Both do well with what they're given, and they get on with one another in a way that feels impressively natural. Williams is decent enough in her role, and certainly does much better work than Franco, Fitzgerald, or Eastwood, and there's another bonus point here for giving supporting roles to wonderful relative newcomer Sam Morelos and wonderful old-timer Clancy Brown.

Watch this in the right frame of mind, or in the right company, and you might appreciate the emotions of it all, the moments that have characters acting cute, and the infrequent laughs. Watch it in a bad mood though and you'll probably struggle to stop yourself from smashing your screen, particularly during the many times things slow right down to show Franco brooding more, either in the foreground or loitering behind another character he seems unable to be honest with.

5/10

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Netflix And Chill: Incoming (2024)

The bad thing about being connected with so many film fans from all over the world is that it can become exhausting, and quite expensive, to try and keep up with the many recommendations you can receive. The good far outweighs the bad though, and one upside is remembering some of those titles when you're after a particular kind of title for your latest viewing choice. I had started watching Incoming a few weeks ago, but general life stuff had interrupted my movie time, which meant I gave up on it and didn't think it worth rushing back to. Then I heard it recommended by a good friend of mine on a podcast that he co-hosts. So I figured I would trust him (and that isn't always advisable, but this time around I am glad that I did).

Mason Thames is Benj Nielsen. He's about to start his first year of being at high school, which means he has to do something to redefine his personality as he wades through some dangerous freshman waters. He has some good friends in Connor (Raphael Alejandro) and Eddie (Ramon Reed), but the trio have to split up when a party thrown by the older brother of their mutual friend, Danah (Bardia Seiri), only has room for one of them to get in the mix with the older guests. Benj sees it as a chance to really shoot his shot with Bailey (Isabella Ferreira), but that's complicated by the fact that she's both a) a bit older than him, and b) a good friend of his sister, Alyssa (Ali Gallo). Meanwhile, Connor and Eddie end up unwillingly driving around Katrina (Loren Gray), a young woman who has partied far too hard and won't tell them where she lives until they first get along to a Taco Bell.

The feature directorial debut for brothers Dave Chernin and John Chernin, who have done some excellent work on the small screen with a couple of shows called It's Always Sunny In Philadelphia and The Mick, Incoming is another near-perfect example of how to deliver a great teen comedy for audiences who can't be served up the same kind of gags and gratuitous nudity that used to be a staple of the sub-genre, but would now be considered ugly and problematic viewed through a more modern and progressive lens. There are some gags and moments here that would work at any time, but one or two moments feel all the better for the feeling that some kind of balance is being redressed (the car scenes, for example, feel very much like a much more amusing and updated riff on a story strand in Sixteen Candles that has not aged well). The Chernin brothers are smart enough to update some tropes without feeling as if they're neutering them, and they're smart enough to know that a lot of the laughs can come from a good mix of characters, portrayed by cast members who feel just right in their roles.

Thames is a strong lead, naive and vulnerable enough to root for, even as he mistakenly changes himself for the benefit of approval from people he shouldn't care about. Alejandro and Reed are equally good, and both get to be involved in one of the funniest set-pieces in the entire film. Both Feirreira and Gallo have fun in their roles, the former being very cool and coveted by young Benj, the latter being quick to cut down anyone around her as she rolls her eyes and pretends to be cool about her ex-partner being in a new relationship, and Loren Gray deserves some praise for her commitment to a seriously unflattering role. Seiri is amusingly smooth/sneaky, Kayvan Shai is entertaining as his older brother, and someone who is keen to use violence whenever possible, and there are superb contributions from Thomas Barbusca (a stoner causing some trouble), Bobby Cannavale (a teacher trying to stay cool with the kids, but hoping to not go too far overboard), Scott MacArthur (an inconsiderate man who happens to be dating Eddie's mother), and Kaitlin Olson (who essentially bookends the film to advise/chastise her children).

It starts off a bit sedate and mild, and you may think (as I did) that it's not going to be worth your time, but give this a chance and you'll find yourself letting out some big laughs as things escalate. The momentum builds nicely, there's a fine soundtrack accompanying the many party scenes, it doesn't outstay its welcome (the runtime is a pretty perfect 91 minutes), and there's a finale that is as smile-inducing and satisfying as it is wonderfully cheesy. Just fantastic fun all around.

8/10

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The Black Phone (2022)

Based on the short story by Joe Hill, The Black Phone is a tale, not entirely unlike some other Hill stories, that feels VERY much like something his dad would write. You get a nice feeling of Americana from the past (it's set in the late 1970s), you get one main character imbued with some magical power, there are horrible bullies, a parent who likes the bottle more than anything else, and the main villain constantly tries to act as if he is working in service of a higher power. I can't see anyone who liked It, or the stories in Different Seasons, finding too much to dislike here.

Ethan Hawke plays 'The Grabber', a masked kidnapper of children who has been reducing the population of a small part of Denver. He meets his match when he grabs young Finney (Mason Thames), but he doesn't realise just how much help Finney is going to have when it comes to staying alive. Finney has a sister, Gwen (Madeleine McGraw), who has been having scarily accurate dreams, which means she may be able to locate her brother. And Finney also has the titular phone, attached to the wall of the relatively bare room he is trapped in. It occasionally rings, something that 'The Grabber' puts down to static electricity, but Finney soon becomes the first person in some time to hear voices through the receiver. Those voices are the previous victims of 'The Grabber', and they have some advice to offer Finney.

Directed by Scott Derrickson, someone who has been delivering solid entertainment for about two decades now (with his last feature being the first Doctor Strange movie), The Black Phone is a supernatural-tinged thriller that works as well as it does thanks to those involved not looking to give themselves any kind of get-out clause. The thriller aspect is solid, and there are moments of tension in between the more predictable plot beats, but the supernatural aspect is equally solid, and it's never dropped in favour of some attempt to tidy everything up in the final scenes. 

The script, written by Derrickson and C. Robert Cargill, effectively delivers all of the information required within the first 20-30 minutes to then really focus on the tension for the remainder of the movie. There are some obvious points made that will be referred back to, but there are also some more subtle details. The 103-minute runtime speeds by, but underpinning the basic thrills and chills is a pleasantly unexpected comment, deliberate or not, about giving victims a voice, and keeping their names more relevant and recognisable than the name of their abuser. You get to learn the names of a number of kids as the movie plays out. You don't learn the real name of Hawke's character, unless I missed one quick mention of it anywhere.

While he's not onscreen for that long, Hawke is excellent, and chilling, in his role. His character casts such a long shadow that I never really felt his lack of physical absence to be a problem (although I have seen some mention that they were surprised by how few main scenes he was in). Thames is the one who carries most of the film, giving a performance that marks him out as someone to keep an eye on. The same goes for McGraw, who makes a strong impression as the feisty and gifted Gwen. The other child actors, most often seen depicting their characters as The Talking Dead, also do well. James Ransone is a highlight, playing a coked-up armchair detective who ends up closer to the truth than the people who are officially on the case. The only person who didn't work in their role was Jeremy Davies, stuck with portraying the drunken father who has to deliver some unnecessary clunky backstory that I initially through was going to set up some extended Hill/King cinematic universe.

I really liked this. It's a simple premise that is executed pretty perfectly (it probably helped that most of the film is set in one room, allowing Derrickson and co. to optimise the use of the budget elsewhere), it doesn't run overlong, and it doesn't feel as if the ending is setting up a sequel. None of those things should be so rare in modern cinema, but watching a film getting everything just right serves as a reminder of how rare they are.

8/10

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