Movie Reviews
Film Review: “People We Meet on Vacation”
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Warning: Full spoilers for the film follow.
Look, I’ll be the first to tell you that Netflix movies are, with some notable exceptions, almost completely forgettable. I can count on the fingers of one hand the number of times the streamer has created a film that managed to stick with me the day after I watched it. I’m happy to say that People We Meet on Vacation, the romantic comedy based on the novel by Emily Henry, is one such. I found it a perfectly enchanting, deeply touching, and often surprisingly hilarious film that had me laughing and crying.
In other words, it’s the perfect rom-com. When the film begins, Emily Bader’s Poppy Wright is a travel writer but, despite her rather lavish lifestyle and the fact she can go anywhere she wants on her magazine’s dime, feels disenchanted with her life. Thus, she leaps at the chance to attend the wedding of her friend, David (a criminally underused Miles Heizer), whose brother used to be Poppy’s best friend. A series of flashbacks show the beginning and growth of their friendship, while in the present the two of them struggle to remember what brought them together, all while trying to figure out just what it is they feel for one another. Eventually, of course, they realize that what they want most is one another, and they end up falling in love.
I think it’s fair to say that there’s tremendous chemistry between Blyth and Bader. From the moment Poppy and Alex meet it’s clear these two people are fated to be with one another, whether as friends or as something else. While Poppy is a bit of a wild child and a free spirit–someone who has a very flexible understanding of what being on time means and is quite happy to eat a very messy breakfast burrito in the car of someone she’s just met–Alex is the quintessential homebody, someone who just wants to move back to their small Ohio town and raise a family. As it turns out, though, there are rich depths to both of them, depths that are only really revealed each year when they reunite for their vacations.
The film is at its best in the past, when we see these two good friends getting to know one another, simply enjoying being away from the world and all of its pressures. Different as they are, there’s clearly something strong and deep between the two of them and, though neither one of them wants to admit it, that something is more than just friendship (though, as time will tell, that friend bond will be key to their burgeoning romantic feelings for each other). These scenes manage to be both poignant and often deeply hilarious, particularly the moment when Alex, after deciding to go skinny-dipping with a potential romantic interest, allows his clothes to get washed away in the river, leading him to walk the rest of the way back to camp naked. It’s a moment that allows Blyth to show off some of his comedy chops, and the movie is better for it.
Finally, we get to the infamous trip to Italy which brought their long-standing friendship to a screeching halt, thanks to a pregnancy scare, an almost-kiss, some awkward babbling from Poppy, and Alex’s impromptu proposal to his on-again/off-again girlfriend Sarah. This is classic rom-com miscommunication, and it works pretty well. Bader really captures Poppy’s sense of confusion as she tries to work through her confusion, a dynamic that will persist until very nearly the film’s end. It’s only once she kisses Alex in the present, though, that the pieces start to click together.
At first, I was a little conflicted about the film’s resolution, which sees Poppy essentially giving up her career as a successful journalist to quasi-settle down with someone who is, as another character puts it, a bit like limp lettuce. The more I thought about it, though, the more I realized that wasn’t really an accurate read of what happens in the film. To be sure, Poppy is the one who gradually comes to realize that her career isn’t satisfying in and of itself, while Alex has always been happy being what he is: a small-town dude who likes living in his hometown. However, we’ve known from the jump that she’s not particularly happy with her life or, frankly, with some of her life choices. For some, being a free spirit and jetting around the world is a source of empowerment and joy; for Poppy, though, it seems to be something else, an escape from an emptiness inside of her she doesn’t quite know how to put into words.
The thing of it is: these two characters make the most sense, and are happier, when they’re together. No matter how hard they try to get away from it, and no matter how much they’ve managed to hurt one another (largely inadvertently) over the years, the truth is they bring out the best in one another. More to the point, they are quite simply enough. And, having seen them together in so many wonderful scenes–whether dancing as only two straight people hopelessly in love with one another can dance or taking care of one another when they’re sick–we actually believe they have what it takes.
While People We Meet on Vacation is quite touching and, contrary to what other critics have claimed, filled with at least glimmers of emotional insight, it’s also quite funny. This will come as no surprise to those of us who had a field day watching Bader shine in the batshit fun that was My Lady Jane, but she’s even more in her element here. Whether it’s spilling the aforementioned breakfast burrito all over Alex’s car or acting like a total weirdo when she’s encountering other people on vacation, Bader simply owns the moment. Blyth, likewise, is the perfect straight man, his intense style of performance perfect for someone like Alex, who feels thanks deeply but often has trouble expressing them (he is a man, after all).
I do have a few quibbles with the screenplay. I would’ve liked to see more of Poppy’s friendship with Alex’s brother, David, particularly since that bond is important enough for the latter to invite Poppy to his wedding. As it is, the screenplay doesn’t really give us any insight as to when they met or how they became close or even whether they’re that close at all. I also would’ve liked to have seen more of Poppy’s parents, particularly since they’re played by two geniuses like Molly Shannon and Alan Ruck. Still, these are relatively minor quibbles.
While I wouldn’t go so far as to say that People We Meet on Vacation is one of the truly great rom-coms, I do think it’s one of the better ones. There is genuine emotional insight here, about how we sometimes are our own worst enemies, sabotaging what could be beautiful and satisfying relationships because we’re afraid we’re not enough. It’s funny and sweet and, at the end of the day, that too, is enough.
Movie Reviews
Movie Review: Here comes “THE BRIDE!”, audacious and wild – Rue Morgue

That’s both a promise and a challenge she delivers, since what follows may rub some viewers the wrong way. Yet Gyllenhaal’s full-throttle commitment to her vision is compelling in and of itself, and she has marshalled an absolutely smashing-looking and -sounding production. The story proper begins in 1936 Chicago, which, like everything and everyplace else in the movie, has been luminously shot by cinematographer Lawrence Sher and sumptuously conjured by production designer Karen Murphy. Her involvement is appropriate given that her previous credits include Bradley Cooper’s A STAR IS BORN and Baz Luhrmann’s ELVIS, since among other things, THE BRIDE! is a nostalgic musical. Its Frankenstein (Christian Bale), who has taken the name of his maker, is obsessed with big-screen tuners, and imagines himself in elaborate song-and-dance numbers. (Considering the reception to JOKER: FOLIE À DEUX, one must applaud the daring of Warner Bros. for greenlighting another expensive film in which a tormented protagonist has that kind of fantasy life.)
THE BRIDE! may be revisionist on many levels, but its characterization of its “monster” holds true to past screen incarnations from Karloff’s to Elordi’s: His scarred appearance masks a lonely soul who desires companionship. Frankenstein has arrived in Chicago to seek out Dr. Cornelia Euphronious (Annette Bening), correctly believing she has the scientific know-how to create an appropriate mate for him. Rather than piece one together, Dr. Euphronious resurrects the corpse of Ida (Jessie Buckley), whose consorting with underworld types led to her brutal death. Previously chafing against the man’s world she inhabited in life, she becomes even more defiant and unruly as a revenant, apparently possessed by the spirit of Shelley herself, declaiming in free-associative sentences and quoting rebellious literature.
Buckley, currently an Oscar favorite for her very different literary-inspired role in HAMNET, tears into the role of the Bride (who now goes by the name Penny) with invigorating abandon that bursts off the screen. Unsure of her identity yet overflowing with self-confident bravado, she’s the opposite of the sensitive “Frank,” but they’re united by the world that stands against them. That becomes literal when a violent incident sends them on the lam, road-tripping to New York City and beyond, on a trail inspired by the films of Ronnie Reed (Jake Gyllenhaal), Frank’s favorite song-and-dance-man star.
With THE BRIDE!, Gyllenhaal has made a film that’s at once her very own and a feverish homage to all sorts of cinema past and present. It’s a horror story, a lovers-on-the-run movie, a crime thriller, a musical and more, and historical fealty be damned if it makes for a good scene (as when Penny and Frank sneak into a 3D movie over a decade before such features became popular). In-references are everywhere: It might just be a coincidence that the couple’s travels take them past Fredonia, NY (cf. “Freedonia” in the Marx Brothers’ DUCK SOUP), but it’s certainly no accident that the former Ida is targeted by a crime boss named Lupino, referencing the actress and pioneering filmmaker whose works included noirs and women’s-issues stories. Penny’s exploits lead legions of admiring women to adopt her look and anarchic attitude, echoing the first JOKER (while a headline calls them “Twisted Sisters”), and the use of one Irving Berlin song in a Frankensteinian context immediately recalls a classic comedic take on the property.
Whether the audience should be put in mind of a spoof at a key point in a film with different goals is another matter. At times like these, Gyllenhaal’s pastiche ambitions overtake emotional investment in the story. As strong as the two lead performances are (Bale is quite moving, conveying a great deal of soul from behind his extensive prosthetics), it’s easier to feel for them in individual scenes than during the entire course of the just-over-two-hour running time. The diversions can be entertaining, to be sure, but they also result in an uncertainty of tone. The dissonance continues straight through to the end, where the filmmaker’s choice of closing-credits song once again suggests we’re not supposed to take all this too seriously.
There’s nonetheless much to admire and enjoy about THE BRIDE!, and this kind of risk-taking by a major studio is always to be encouraged (especially considering that we’ll see how long that lasts at Warner Bros. once Paramount takes it over). Beyond the terrific work by the aforementioned actors, there’s fine support from Peter Sarsgaard and Penelope Cruz as detectives on Penny and Frank’s heels, with Sandy Powell’s lavish costumes and Hildur Guðnadóttir’s rich, varied score vital to fashioning this fully imagined world. Kudos also to makeup and prosthetics designer Nadia Stacey and to Chris Gallaher and Scott Stoddard, who did those honors on Frank, for their visceral, evocative work. Uneven as it may be, THE BRIDE! is also as alive! as any film you’ll likely see this year.
Movie Reviews
Maxime Giroux – ‘In Cold Light’ movie review
(Credits: Far Out / Elevation Pictures)
Maxime Giroux – ‘In Cold Light’
The action is relentless in the complex thriller In Cold Light, a tense combination of crime and fugitive tale and family drama. It is the third feature and first English language film by Maxime Giroux, best known for a very different kind of film, the critically acclaimed 2014 drama Felix & Meira.
The tension and high energy of In Cold Light almost overwhelm the film, but are relieved, barely, by moments of character development and introspection that keep the audience pulling for the restrained and outwardly cold main character.
Speaking at the film’s Canadian premiere, director Giroux admitted he found creating an action film a challenge. Part of his approach was using very minimal dialogue, especially for the central character, letting the action speak for itself, and allowing silence to intensify suspense. Giroux has said he likes the lack of dialogue and speaks highly of the importance of silence in cinema; he prefers using “physical aspects of communication” in his films.
Young Ava Bly (Maika Monroe) is a competent and businesslike drug dealer, working in partnership with her brother Tom (Jesse Irving) and a small team. As the film begins, Ava has just been released from a brief prison sentence. She is hoping to return to her former position, but her brother’s associates consider her a risk due to her recent incarceration. While she works to re-establish herself, a shocking encounter with a corrupt police officer sends Ava’s life into chaos and forces her to go on the run.
Ava’s fugitive experience introduces a new character, to whom Ava turns for help: her father, Will Bly, played by Troy Kotsur, known for his excellent performance in CODA. Their first interaction is handled in a fascinating way, as Will is deaf and the two communicate through sign language. This, of course, provides another form of the silent interaction the director prefers; he explained that much of the father-daughter interaction was rewritten with the actor in mind. Their conflict is nicely expressed through a scene in which their initial conversation is intermittently cut off by a faulty light which goes out periodically, making communication through sign momentarily impossible, nicely expressing the rift between father and daughter.
As Ava continues to evade danger, her escape becomes complicated by new information, placing her in a painful dilemma. We gradually learn more about Ava, her background, and her character through occasional flashbacks and glimpses of her dreams. The plot becomes more complex and more poignant, and gains features of a mystery as well as an action tale, as she is pressed to choose from among equally unacceptable alternatives.
The climax of her efforts to protect both herself and those close to her comes to a head as she meets with the director of a rival drug gang. Veteran actress Helen Hunt is perfect in the minor but significant role of Claire, the rival drug lord, who plays odd mind games with Ava in an intriguing psychological fencing match. It’s an unusual scene, in which Ava’s personality is made clearer, and Claire’s understated dominance and casual speech do not quite conceal the threat she represents.
The frantic pace and emotional turmoil are enhanced by the camera work, which tends to focus tightly on Ava, and by a harsh, minimal musical score that sets the tone without distracting from the action. Giroux chose to shoot the film in Super 60; he describes digital as “too perfect” for the look he was going for, and since “Ava is rough,” the film portrays her better. The director describes the entire movie as “rough,” in fact, and deliberately chose a dark, washed-out look for much of the footage, occasionally using light and colour, in the form of fireworks, lightning, or a colourful carnival, to both relieve and emphasise the darkness.
The dynamic, intense story holds the attention in spite of the lengthy, sometimes repetitive chase scenes and subdued dialogue. Ava’s predicament, and the difficult decisions she is forced to make, are made surprisingly relatable, from the initial disaster that starts the action to the surprising flash-forward that concludes the film, on as high a note as the situation could allow. Fans of action movies will definitely enjoy this one.
Movie Reviews
Jeremy Schuetze’s ‘ANACORETA’ (2022) – Movie Review – PopHorror
PopHorror had the chance to check out Anacoreta (2022) ahead of its streaming release! Does this meta-horror flick provide interesting story telling or is it a confusing mess.
Let’s have a look…
Synopsis
A group of friends heads to a secluded woodland cabin for a weekend getaway, planning to film an experimental horror movie. As the shoot progresses, the project begins to fall apart—until a real and terrifying presence emerges from the darkness.
Anacoreta is directed by Jeremy Schuetze. It was written by Jeremy Schuetze and Matt Visser. The film stars Antonia Thomas (Bagman 2024), Jesse Stanley (Raf 2019), Jeremy Schuetze (Jennifer’s Body 2009), and Matt Visser (A Lot Like Christmas 2021)
My Thoughts
Antonia Thomas delivered an outstanding performance as the female lead in Anacoreta. It was remarkable to watch her convey such a wide range of emotions with authenticity and depth. I was continually impressed by her ability to switch seamlessly between different dialects. I absolutely loved her delivery of the dialogue of telling The Scorpion and the Frog fable.
Anacoreta employs a distinctive, meta-horror style of storytelling. The narrative follows a group of friends creating a “scripted reality” horror film, and as the plot unfolds, the boundary between their staged production and their actual lives becomes increasingly blurred. This was interesting, but at the same time frustrating as a viewer.

Check out Anacoreta on Prime Video and let us know your thoughts!
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