Movie Reviews
It Ends with Us (2024) – Movie Review
It Ends with Us, 2024.
Directed by Justin Baldoni.
Starring Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni, Brandon Sklenar, Jenny Slate, Hasan Minhaj, Amy Morton, Isabela Ferrer, Alex Neustaedter, Kevin McKidd, Robin S. Walker, Emily Baldoni, Robyn Lively, Megan Elyse Robinson, Caroline Siegrist, Adam Mondschein, and Robert Clohessy.
SYNOPSIS:
Adapted from the Colleen Hoover novel, Lily overcomes a traumatic childhood to embark on a new life. A chance meeting with a neurosurgeon sparks a connection but Lily begins to see sides of him that remind her of her parents’ relationship.
Writer/director/co-lead Justin Baldoni’s directorial debut, It Ends with Us (based on the book by Colleen Hoover and adapted for the screen by Daddio writer/director Christy Hall), is a story about domestic abuse with an important message at the core, that becomes far too preoccupied with ridiculous soap opera love triangle nonsense. Also coming into question is how much of this relies on conveying that message through misleading visuals. Early on, our protagonist jokes that she is an unreliable narrator, which later on feels more like the film itself admitting it’s toying with perception disingenuously, albeit in a predictable way since there isn’t much doubt in where the story is headed.
Lily Blossom Bloom (Blake Lively with a wild hairstyle suggesting the film takes place in the 1980s rather than the present day) lives in Boston and has just opened up a, wait for it… flower shop. This comes following the sudden death of her father (played by Kevin McKidd in flashbacks), who routinely physically abused her mother (Amy Morton), making for an awkward funeral, to say the least. Lily walked out at the podium, unable to come up with anything positive to say about the man, still unsure of how her mom ever could have stayed with him. In that frustration, she also enters a nearby apartment to unwind, hanging out on the roof, where she has a meet-cute with the most handsome, buff neurosurgeon you have ever seen. His name is Ryle Kincaid (Justin Baldoni), and he is kicking a chair, upset that he was unable to save a life.
Perhaps he seems like a sweet guy. Well, within a few minutes, he is opening up “naked truths,” talking about being unfit for serious relationships and how he would casually like to have sex with Lily right there on this roof. To me (and maybe you), that’s pretty weird; it’s also far from the only case of Ryle getting a bit sexually sleazy, something that the film kind of lets him off the hook for. Lily also opens up about her first love and the first person she ever had sex with, a sensitive and kind homeless boy she gravitated to, with that relationship serving as the focal point of the flashbacks (a relationship we get a glimpse of in flashbacks, with the two played by Isabela Ferrer and Alex Neustaedter.) Since this is a movie, he immediately determines something is different about Lily and that he would like to give real love a shot.
Nevertheless, everything about this blossoming love between Lily and Ryle appears to be going well on the surface, even if it’s apparent to viewers his mask will come off (there wouldn’t be a movie, otherwise.) Again, that conflict (which takes roughly an hour to arrive finally) comes in the form of domestic abuse and, more specifically, how people perceive, rationalize, and chalk an incident up as an accident. That’s also something vital that should be explored, but the filmmakers seem more concerned with manifesting that drama in the most melodramatic, over-the-top manner possible while also inserting another guy into the equation (Brandon Sklenar), one who is fiercely protective over Lily.
Of course, there is also a lot of fortuity here, such as Ryle reconnecting with Lily after the initial meet-cute, all because his sister Allyssa (Jenny Slate) randomly stumbled into the flower shop looking for a job. She also has no idea that her brother is capable of some deplorable behavior, making for the scarily intriguing concept that not even some siblings know each other entirely. The problem is that the execution treats this entire story like a Lifetime film, charging headfirst into drama that never quite feels real. If anything, it’s often unintentionally hilarious, such as a restaurant fight between the two grown men battling over Lily. The specific reason that the fight occurs comes across as laughably dumb, something that could have been solved by two people talking to each other like adults. The thing is, people rarely feel real here.
There is also the feeling that anytime the film dares to become serious and dive into uncomfortable thematic material, it also pulls back as if it wants to be a sappy romantic love triangle above all else. And while I’m aware domestic abusers are capable of hiding that aspect of themselves well, here, there are constant jumps in times that leave one questioning the credulity of how long this man inexperienced with dating (presumably for good reason) would last without slipping up on his toxic side. The endless barrage of pop songs only serves to sanitize the material here. Even accounting for the flashbacks, there isn’t a single moment of actual conflict here until the one-hour mark, presumably because the romance is what sells to this demographic.
One possible read is that the filmmakers are aware of this, creating the usual cringe Hollywood love story playing into Lily’s oblivious nature that all is well in this relationship and that this is love. I would love to sit here and say that everything here is a stroke of subversive brilliance. However, even if that were the case, the execution isn’t there, often eliciting groans and laughs since the situations feel far-fetched. Coincidently, It Ends with Us does conclude with an emotional, believable exchange that needs to be heard by domestic abusers around the world. It’s a shame the rest of the film is outlandish and doesn’t cut nearly as deep.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★
Robert Kojder is a member of the Chicago Film Critics Association and the Critics Choice Association. He is also the Flickering Myth Reviews Editor. Check here for new reviews, follow my Twitter or Letterboxd, or email me at MetalGearSolid719@gmail.com
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Movie Reviews
1986 Movie Reviews – Dangerously Close, Fire with Fire, Last Resort, and Short Circuit | The Nerdy
by | May 9, 2026May 9, 2026 10:30 am EDT
Welcome to an exciting year-long project here at The Nerdy. 1986 was an exciting year for films giving us a lot of films that would go on to be beloved favorites and cult classics. It was also the start to a major shift in cultural and societal norms, and some of those still reverberate to this day.
We’re going to pick and choose which movies we hit, but right now the list stands at nearly four dozen.
Yes, we’re insane, but 1986 was that great of a year for film.
The articles will come out – in most cases – on the same day the films hit theaters in 1986 so that it is their true 40th anniversary. All films are also watched again for the purposes of these reviews and are not being done from memory. In some cases, it truly will be the first time we’ve seen them.
This time around, it’s May 9, 1986, and we’re off to see Dangerously Close, Fire with Fire, Last Resort, and Short Circuit.
Dangerously Close
I would love to tell you what the point of this film was, but I’m not sure it knew.
An elite school has turned into a magnet school, attracting some “undesirables,” so a group of students known as The Sentinels take up policing their school, but will they go too far?
The basic plot of the film is simple enough, but there is an oddball “twist” toward the end tht served no real purpose and somehow turns the whole thing into a murder-mystery. Mysteries only work when you know you’re supposed to be solving them, and not when you’re alerted to one existing with 15 minutes left.
Decent 80s music, some stylistic shots, absolutely no substance.
Fire with Fire
Oh wait… I may want to go back and watch Dangerously Close again over this one.
Joe Fisk (Craig Sheffer) is being held at a juvenile delinquent facility close a high-end all-girls Catholic school. One day while running through the forest as part of an exercise he spots Catholic schoolgirl Lisa Taylor (Virginia Madsen) and the two fall immediately in love because… reasons.
This film is just so incredibly lazy. The ‘love story’ really can just be chalked up to ‘hormones.’
Last Resort
Once again I am baffled how Charles Grodin kept getting work so much through out the 1980s.
George Lollar (Grodin) is a salesman in Chicago in need of a vacation. He loads up the family and takes them to Club Sand, which turns out to be a swingers resort as well as surrounded by barbed wire to keep rebels out.
There are a lot of talented people in this movie such as Phil Hartman and Megan Mullally, but the film lets them down at every turn with half-baked ideas of jokes. Supposedly, Grodin rewrote nearly the entire script and I think that explains a lot about how this film feels like unfinished ideas. It’s a Frankenstein monster of a script with half-complete ideas that feel like they are from completely different movies.
Short Circuit
Lets just get this out of the way: What in the world was Fisher Stevens doing?
NOVA Laboratory has come up with a new series of military robots called S.A.I.N.T. (Strategic Artificially Intelligent Nuclear Transport). Following a successful demonstration for the military, Five is struck by an electrical surge and finds itself needing ‘input.’ After inadvertently escaping the lab, it wands into the life of Stephanie Speck (Ally Sheedy), who cares for animals and takes Five in. Dr. Newton Crosby (Steve Guttenberg) is trying to get five back, while the security team wants to destroy it.
Overall, the film is thin, but harmless. The 80s did seem to love a ‘technology being used for the wrong reasons’ theme, and this falls into that camp. What is mind-blowing, however, is Stevens as Ben Jabituya, Crosby’s assistant. Not only is he wearing brown face, but he’s doing a horrible Indian accent and later reveals he was born and raised in the U.S.
His whole character is mystifying.
Honestly, a couple of decades ago I may have recommended this movie, but it’s a definite pass now just for being offensive.
1986 Movie Reviews will continue on May 16, 2026, with Sweet Liberty and Top Gun.
By ABBIE BERNSTEIN / Staff Writer
Posted: May 8th, 2026 / 08:34 PM
AFFECTION movie poster | ©2026 Brainstorm Media
Rating: Not Rated
Stars: Jessica Rothe, Joseph Cross, Julianna Layne
Writer: BT Meza
Director: BT Meza
Distributor: Brainstorm Media
Release Date: May 8, 2026
AFFECTION is an odd title for this tale. While it is about a number of topics and emotions, fondness isn’t one of them. Obsession, definitely. Love, possibly. The kind of general warm fellow feelings associated with “affection”? No.
There have been a lot of movies lately in which characters – mostly women – are grappling with false identities and/or false memories imposed upon them, mostly by men.
Let us stipulate that the protagonist (Jessica Rothe) in AFFECTION is not an android or in an artificial reality. However, we can tell something is way off from the opening sequence. A car is stalled on a tree-bordered highway. Rothe’s character is lying face down on the asphalt beside it, possibly dead.
But then the young woman rises, dragging a broken ankle. She experiences a full-body seizure. Fighting to recover, she sees oncoming headlights and tries to run, only to be hit by a car.
The woman wakes up in a bed she doesn’t recognize, next to a man (Joseph Cross) she likewise is sure she’s never seen before. One big confrontation later, the man says his name is Bruce – and that the woman is his wife, Ellie.
Ellie insists that her name is Sarah Thompson, and she is married to someone else, with a son. When she sees her reflection in a mirror, she doesn’t relate to the face looking back at her.
Bruce counters that Ellie has a rare neurological condition that causes her to block out her waking life and believe her dreams are real. This is why they agreed, together, to move to this isolated house, without the kinds of interruptions that can hinder Ellie’s recovery.
The set-up is presented in a way where we share Ellie’s skepticism. But Ellie and Bruce’s little daughter Alice (Julianna Layne) immediately identifies Ellie as “Mommy!” Alice appears to be too young to be in on any kind of deception, so what is going on here?
AFFECTION eventually explains this via a helpful videotape, though it’s so convoluted that viewers watching on streaming may want to replay the sequence to make sure they understand the exposition.
Writer/director BT Meza musters a sense of menace and lurking weirdness, as well as making great use of his location.
We still have a lot of questions, many of which are still unanswered by the film’s end. It may not matter to the points AFFECTION is trying to make, but a better sense of exactly how all this started might help our investment.
As it is, despite a heroically versatile performance by Rothe, a credible and anguished turn by Cross and appealing work from Layne, we’re so busy trying to piece together what’s important and what’s not and how we’re supposed to feel about all of it that it can be hard to keep track of the action as it unfolds.
Agree or not, Meza’s arguments are lucid and illustrated clearly by AFFECTION’s events. However, the movie is structured in a way that becomes more frustrating as it goes. We comprehend it intellectually but can’t engage viscerally.
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The hosts gave their reviews and assigned the following star ratings:
Deanna: ★★★★.5
Allison: ★★★.25
Julia: ★★
To watch more livestreams and digital video content, head to the WRIC+ Originals page. You can also watch full on-demand videos on your smart TV using the WRIC+ app.
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