Prime Video has had an original film, directed by Lena Dunham, on its service for the last few weeks. It has been on my “My Stuff” section for a bit now. Tonight, I put it on and watched Catherine Called Birdy.

The Amazon original movie was set in medieval times, though there was a distinct present day feel to much of the story, a comedy/coming-of-age tale of a young girl named Catherine (Bella Ramsey), also called Birdy, who desperately did not want to become a ‘lady.’

Birdy was the only daughter of her father, Lord Rollo (Andrew Scott) and mother, Lady Aislinn (Billie Piper). Lord Rollo was anxious to marry off his 14-year old daughter because their family had fallen on troubled time financially and he needed the dowry she would fetch to help their family. The problem, Birdy was rebellious, wanted no part of any marriage and she actively was sabotaging every suitor he father had arranged.

Bella Ramsey carried this movie with her remarkable performance as the troublemaking Lady Catherine. Her dry responses were quite funny and the situations she found herself in were humorously confusing. She was able to provide every emotion that Birdy had to go through and she did it realistically. Maybe not as realistic for the Middle Ages, but she felt very sincere as a young girl.

Andrew Scott was great as Lord Rollo. You could tell he was frustrated by Birdy’s machinations and that he felt guilt over what he believed that he had to do. Andrew Scott is always great in his roles and his relationship with Bella was an important piece of the film.

There were several side stories going on around Birdy and they were mostly compelling, especially the attempt of her parents to have another child despite continuous tragedies.

Funny and compelling, Catherine Called Birdy is a film that you should give a chance.

4 stars

I love Viola Davis so I have been wanting to go see her latest movie, The Woman King, for awhile now, but it was a long one and my schedule just did not accommodate it. Until this weekend, that is.

The Woman King is a fictionalized adventure featuring the Agojie, a group of warrior women who protected the African kingdom of Dahomey during the 17th to 19th centuries. Though the Agojie were a real group, the story told in The Woman King is not real. Viola Davis played General Nanisca, one of the leaders of the warriors, and she was involved in training some of the new women looking to join the king’s guard, including Nawi (Thuso Mbedu), whom Nanisca took special interest.

The cast included such top notch actors such as Lashana Lynch, Shelia Atim, John Boyega, Hero Fiennes Tiffin, Jimmy Odukoya, and Adrienne Warren.

The whole film, all I could picture was how this was so much like the Dora Milaje from Wakanda in the Black Panther mythos of Marvel Comics. I can only assume that the creation of the Dora Milaje from Marvel was heavily based on the historical group of the Agojie. In fact, I kept thinking and comparing Viola Davis’s Nanisca to Danai Gurira’s Okoye in the Marvel Cinematic Universe.

This movie had a definite epic feel to it, as it featured some amazing battlefield wars with the Agojie and whatever group they were fighting, especially the slavers that had come for some of their people. The battles in The Woman King made me feel like I was watching the battles from Braveheart in scale. These scenes were wonderfully directed and shot by the film’s director, Gina Prince-Bythewood.

Viola Davis never fails to be outstanding. Even in the role of an African warrior, Davis is able to tug on your emotions and find the deeper aspects of her character. Thuso Mbedu was also very good in this movie and shared some powerful moments with Davis.

There was some great music in the film as well, with the score providing a strong backdrop to the action and some excellent moments when the warriors burst into a dance. The end credits song, “Keep Rising” (featuring Angelique Kidjo) had me bopping my head so hard that I needed to immediately pull out my phone and purchase the song on the iTunes store.

The Woman King might have been a touch too long, but the action scenes are worth every second as are some of the training scenes, such as an obstacle course that was full of tension. Vila Davis and Thuso Mbedu were outstanding in their performances and the Agojie were amazing in their fight choreography through their mostly practical stunts. The Woman King is really good and made me want a Dora Milaje Disney + series or a feature film.

4.25 stars

Netflix is known for having movies based on certain holidays for viewing on their streaming service and it is October and it is time for some Halloween action. Marlon Wayans led this comedic Halloween story that felt like a combination of Hocus Pocus, Goosebumps, Jumanji with a splattering of Stranger Things… only not as awesome as any of them.

According to IMDB, “A teenage girl, who accidentally releases an ancient and mischievous spirit on Halloween which causes decorations to come alive and wreak havoc, must team up with the last person she’d want to in order to save their town – her father.”

The teenage girl, Sydney, was played by Stranger Things actor Priah Ferguson and her father was Marlon Wayans. Wayans played Sydney’s father and he started the film as pretentious as he could be. He was dismissive and judgmental and simply unlikable. Thankfully, as you would expect, he changed his attitude as the weird Halloween stuff started happening.

This is, at best, a harmless, somewhat stupid movie that would be good for kids and their families during the holiday season. It does not try to do anything new or interesting. It feels just like a recycled plot of some of those better films that I mentioned earlier. In fact, there were moments that felt like it was directly taken from Hocus Pocus (when Sidney found the spell book, I literally yelled, ‘Boooooooooooook’ like Bette Midler did in the Hocus Pocus films). There was also a character here, played by John Michael Higgins, who was wearing, I swear, the identical outfit that was worn by Gary Marshall in the original Hocus Pocus. It is like they were not even trying to hide it.

Priah Ferguson was a fun, pseudo-lead of the film, getting to do more (though admittedly similar) things than she did as Lucas’s sister in Stranger Things. However, she is very charismatic and enjoyable to watch, so she is able to elevate the below average material to make it, at least, watchable.

Marlon Wayans was overacting as he always does in these films, but some of what he does is funny, so he could be forgiven. As I said, I think kids will enjoy the film more and be forgiving of its obvious flaws.

I think the best thing I could say about The Curse of Bridge Hollow is that it knows what its target audience is and it does a decent job of reaching it. Unfortunately, I am not in that range. I did not hate watching it, but I would not say that i was entertained by it either.

2.8 stars

I hated the Halloween Kills film. It tainted a lot of what I wanted after a decent Halloween (2018). However, the last trailer for Halloween Ends was really good and it renewed my hope that the final film in this trilogy could pull it back onto track.

Well, Halloween Ends is better than Halloween Kills.

That’s about it, though.

It is hard to go into too much details about the movie because the trailer that I liked so much is not really what this movie is about. The trailer is most of the third act, where Michael Myers and Laurie Strode have their final showdown, but the first two acts are about something else and Michael Myers is just tangential to the story.

That fact that you are following a different story in the first part of the movie only to have it tossed aside in the third act made me feel that I wasted my time with the first part of Halloween Ends.

Jamie Lee Curtis is great as always, but she does not have a ton to do in the first part of the film. Laurie is a little inconsistent in the manner that the character is used. Her character’s daughter Allyson (Andi Matichak) is all over the place. Allyson became involved in a relationship with a local kid who was involved with a tragedy that we see at the beginning of the film. His name was Corey (Rohan Campbell) and their relationship, for me, made zero sense. I am not sure the film really committed to the relationship. They liked the idea but it never was treated as it was important to the movie. That is why the third act emotionally falls apart so badly.

Because while the final showdown with Laurie and Michael was decent, it had been benched for so long that it just took the energy out of it and how it winds up is kind of silly. Some of the ideas being bandied about in the first two acts were interesting, but the film never embraced any of them. They were there just as a placeholder until the third act started.

Halloween Ends was better than Halloween Kills, but the bar is really low. I was disappointed with the film, considering how much I enjoyed that last trailer. I am happy that I stayed home and watched it on Peacock instead of heading to the theaters for it.

2 stars

I’m not intentionally watching a bunch of horror films because it is the season, it may just seem that way. I went back to Shudder for a film that I had seen commented about on Twitter, but hadn’t seen anything else about. It was called Deadstream and it was a joy.

Disgraced YouTube influencer Shawn Ruddy (Joseph Winter) was hoping to regain his reputation by facing one of his major fears: ghosts. To do so, he went to a haunted house to spend a night livestreaming onto the internet. Shawn found that there were more in this house than he would have hoped.

This is a found footage horror film that emulates the concept of a livestream, something that has been a huge piece of the current culture. Deadstream, despite the fact that it brings out some ghosts and horrors, is a broadcast that I could actually see happen in the real world. My guess is that there are podcasts or livestreams happening right now that deal with the paranormal that would be just like this one (minus the actual ghosts, of course). By using this, the film is able to comment on the culture of YouTube, Twitter, TikTok and all of the other social media outlets that allow such a platform.

It also can comment on the rules of the videos that might lead to demonetizing a post (such as excess swearing) or being struck with a copyright claim are real issues that creators on YouTube have to be aware of and having Shawn gripping about it, as well as asking people to like and subscribe, make this feel real.

The way the internet was watching everything happen too makes for an intriguing situation. Did anyone ever call for the police like Shawn had begged them to do? Sure, some of them provided videos to help out with knowledge, but there were several watching who believed that Shawn deserved what he was getting, that is was karma for his past sins.

Joseph Winter starred as Shawn, wrote and directed the movie too. He is fantastic through the whole of the film, having to carry most every minute. He shows his scummy side early, though one could argue that he was more ignorant than mean. His early screams over nothing was hilarious, but his continual panic as things got worse was great. Shawn absolutely went on a journey of self-realization by dealing with the horrors that he faced while learning about the social relevance of his platform.

This was hilarious. I laughed through the film, even when I was being grossed out by the blood or the other such fluids.

I really loved this movie. I was surprised how engaged I was with the story and with the character of Shawn, specifically because he was shown to be a pretty unlikable guy. Still, I was rooting for him to survive his encounter with the ghosts of the house. There may be a few plot holes (where did all the electricity come from?) but none of that bothered me as I watched this excellent and original found footage film that really felt like it could actually be on YouTube.

4.9 stars

During last year’s DailyView binge, around Halloween time, I watched, for the first time, the original Clive Barker 1987 Hellraiser, and it was decent. I have not seen any of the following sequels that have, apparently, not been up to the same level. This weekend, a new version of the film was released on Hulu and I decided to give it a chance.

A young woman, Riley (Odessa A’zion), had plenty of problems, including one with addiction. She had hooked up with a guy named Trevor (Drew Starkey), against the better wishes of her brother Matt (Brandon Flynn). Trevor convinced Riley to help him attempt a robbery but all they came out of it with was a strange puzzle box that neither of them could understand. Riley had no idea that the puzzle box was used to summon the Cenobites, a group of sadistic supernatural beings.

Pinhead here is played by Janie Clayton and the character is every bit as scary as the original version. The other Cenobites looked good as the effects worked.

The story felt a little convoluted to me, and I did have some struggle to follow along, but as I am not the biggest fan of the franchise, I think that is to be expected. The director, David Bruckner, does a solid job of creating tension and anxiety among the audience and keeping the viewers unsure about what was going to happen. There is a twist in the third act that I did not see coming and made everything come together successfully.

There was a lot of blood and violence in the new film and it is done in a dramatic way.

Hulu has had some top notch films in 2022. There was Prey in the Predator franchise and the original horror movie Fresh. Hellraiser (2022) fits nicely into the list of films on the streaming site. It is a solid Halloween movie, though it may not be one that sticks with you very long.

3.4 stars

I am not a fan of Kid Cudi. I don’t dislike him, and, honestly, I have never been exposed to his music much before so it is difficult to state anything about him. However, Kid Cudi is the driving force behind the animated special on Netflix called Entergalactic, which was released as a companion to Cudi’s new record and the animated movie is very impressive.

According to IMDB, “Jabari, a charming, streetwear-clad artist on the cusp of real success. After a chance run-in with his cool new photographer neighbor, Meadow, Jabari has to figure out whether he can make space for love in his life.“

Jabari is voiced by Scott Mescudi, aka Kid Cudi and the neighbor Meadow was voiced by Jessica Williams. The story introduced us to these two artistic and creative characters who find love with one and other and then try to make their relationship work in New York City.

An adult rom com is not the usual fare for animation, but the style of the movie worked very well with the romantic tale that engulfed the two characters.

The animation was beautiful. I read a review somewhere that compared Entergalactic’s story to a combination of When Harry Met sally and Into the Spider-verse, which felt 100% accurate to me. The colors, the changing of styles, the visual excitement exploded from the screen throughout the movie. Director Fletcher Moules did a great job of creating shots that added to the romance as well as showed a creative visual energy.

The Kid Cudi music, which was not in my repertoire typically, did work very well for the story being told and helped create the movie’s tone and feel.

There were a great voice cast included in Entergalactic including Timothée Chalamet, Ty Dolla Sign, Vanessa Hudgens, Keith David, Jaden Smith, Macaulay Culkin, Laura Harrier, 070 Shake, Christopher Abbott and Arturo Castro.

Everything blended together into a solid animated film that looked amazing and sounded cool. It does feature adult situations so it is not for kids, but it is a stylish rom com that takes that genre to new levels.

3.7 stars

I have been waiting for this movie’s price to drop on Vudu for quite awhile. After seeing this charming film, I should have rented this a long time ago.

In 1950, Mrs. Harris (Lesley Manville), a British cleaning leady, widowed since the war, saw a couture Dior dress purchased by one of her employers and she fell in love with it. Scraping together whatever money she could muster, Mrs. Harris decided to go to Paris and purchase her own couture Dior dress.

The star of this film is clearly Lesley Manville, who is absolutely charming and effervescent as the titular character. She is a character that you just can’t help but love and who can take even the worst moment and make it better. Lesley Manville perfectly embodied this bright light of a woman, bringing a specialness to the role. Mrs. Harris is a character that can appeal to every class of people.

The story was wonderful too. Her time in Paris was treated much like a fairy tale, with the ending being the perfect cherry on the top of the sundae. There were so many ups and downs for Mrs. Harris in Paris but she brought the folksy magnetism to the characters all around Dior, and her presence brought about so many changes to the secondary characters on the screen.

Based on Paul Gallico’s novel Mrs. ‘Arris Goes to Paris, this is the third film adaptation of that novel. Directed by Anthony Fabian, the story is simple but so effective. Lesley Manville is amazing in the role, perfectly suited to the delightful Mrs. Harris.

If you have not seen this film yet, it is worth the rental.

4.5 stars

David O. Russell’s new movie Amsterdam starts off with the comment that ‘some of these events really happened,’ leaving the question about how much of the film has been exaggerated.

In Amsterdam, we follow Dr. Burt Berendsen (Christian Bale) and his friend Harold Woodman (John David Washington), who met during World War I and formed a pact to watch each others backs. After they were terribly wounded, including Burt losing an eye, they meet a nurse Valerie (Margot Robbie) and the three of them formed a relationship during their recovery in Amsterdam.

When Burt decides that he must go home to his wife Beatrice (Andrea Riseborough), Valerie predicted that something terrible was going to happen.

Years later, Burt and Harold were working together, one a doctor the other a lawyer, and they were hired by the daughter of a man who had died on the return trip from Europe. She believed that there was foul play and she wanted Burt to do an autopsy.

After the autopsy, with evidence of possible poisoning being turned up, Burt and Harold meet with the woman, but she gets pushed beneath a car and is killed. The actual killer pointed at Burt and Harold and claimed that it was them who had pushed the woman, sending them fleeing from the crowd and setting them on the case to try and find out why she was murdered.

Christian Bale, John David Washington and Margot Robbie were sensational together. They had such chemistry as a trio that they were always a pleasure to watch. Bale, in particular, was electric here, with so many amazing facial moments and a performance that was both funny and heart-wrenching.

The film had a great cast besides the three leading actors. These included Robert DeNiro, Rami Malek, Michael Shannon, Mike Myers, Timothy Olyphant, Chris Rock, Taylor Swift, Anya Taylor-Joy, Alessandro Nivola, Matthias Schoenaerts and Zoe Saldaña.

The story did meander a tad and the mystery was not remarkably strong. However, I so enjoyed watching the characters interact and I found myself laughing several times that the messiness of the story did not bother me. It was only upon reflection where these faults came out.

The Rotten Tomatoes score was considerably lower than I anticipated, because I enjoyed watching this movie. Is it too long? It did not feel long to me, but some may say so. Christian Bale was a real standout and gave a performance that you cannot look away from. Amsterdam was a fun and engaging film, no matter what anyone else claims.

3.6 stars

Based on a short story by Stephen King, Mr. Harrigan’s Phone arrived on Netflix and featured two outstanding performances from two notable actors.

First was Jaeden Martell, who has appeared in several films over the years- most notably It Chapter 1. Martell played Craig, a young high school student who spent three days a week reading to an elderly man at his house. That elderly man, Mr. Harrigan, was much more than he seemed and was played by Donald Sutherland.

Craig, out of friendship, bought Mr. Harrigan a smart phone and showed him how to use it. Mr. Harrigan refused the gift at first, but eventually succumb to the benefits of the phone.

When Mr. Harrigan died, Craig tucked his phone in Mr. Harrigan’s coffin. Craig was shocked when he received a text message from Mr. Harrigan after his burial.

This was a strange film. It certainly had two great performances from Sutherland and Martell. Their scenes together in the first half of the movie were the best moments here.

However, the story did not seem to know how it wanted to go. The film seemed to want to a ghost story of some sort, but that did not pick up until later in the film. The connection between Craig and Mr. Harrigan carried the first half of the film and it dropped some hints along the way that perhaps Mr. Harrigan was not the kind hearted old man that he seemed. It is not developed very well because the film took it into a new direction.

That was a commentary on the use of cell phones and how they are able to take over one’s lives. Mr. Harrigan said outright all of the drawbacks for the obsession with phones, but he could not drop the addiction of the phone. It was grasped tightly in his hand when he died.

There were a couple of plot threads that were left dangling that I thought were going to pay off eventually, but did not. There was a plot thread involving a drug dealing high school bully (Cyrus Arnold) which did not fit the themes that the story seemed to be telling.

Though the movie felt as if it was trying to be several different types of genres all crammed into one, the two leading performances are very strong and help to elevate the plot above what’s there. The message about cell phones is a major part of the second half of the film and is not as subtle as it could be. Martell and Sutherland are the reasons to watch this.

3.2 stars

I have been a longtime fan of the writings of Edgar Allan Poe. Not just of the writings but also the entire package of the man, from his behavior as an adult to the mysterious circumstances surrounding his death. Edgar Allan Poe is an enigma and I love that about him.

However, I have not found a movie portrayal of the man, Edgar Allan Poe, that I have thought was worth much of anything. There was the John Cusack in 2012’s The Raven, the series of Poe adaptations by Roger Corman in the 50s and 60s, and plenty of allusions and adaptations of his stories. There has been a lack of the truly iconic performance of this fabled author/poet.

So when I found this horror film on Shudder that used Edgar Poe as a character, I was definitely curious. This fictionalized tale fit into the past of Poe during the time when he was a cadet at West Point and he came across a man horribly attacked, who whispered his last words “Raven.”

Edgar Poe (William Moseley) and four of his fellow cadets took the body to the nearby village, coincidentally (or not so much) named Raven’s Hollow. Once here, the mystery of what was going on in the village led to more death and a supernatural spectacle that informed the life of Poe moving forward.

My favorite part of this movie was trying to suss out all the different allusions made to Poe’s works. Clearly, there were a ton of The Raven references, including the use of the name Lenore, right down to the use of some of the well-known lines from the epic poem as dialogue in the film. However, there were more mentions throughout. One of the characters was named Usher (Oberon K.A. Adjepong), which connects to The Fall of the House of Usher. I caught the use of the line “Love with a love that was more than love” which came from the poem Annabel Lee. One of the victims of the village was chopped up and buried in the floorboards of a house and Poe wound up holding a still beating heart in his hands as happens in The Tell-Tale Heart. I’m sure there were more, but these were the ones I caught.

Unfortunately, the rest of the movie was not nearly as clever as the film attempted to weave in a legend about a mysterious creature called the Raven, something that was more than just a bird. The mystery of this Raven was convoluted and never felt like a clear narrative. I found it too messy to be effective and certainly not when talking about a person such as Edgar Allan Poe.

The character of Poe was lacking in charisma for me. He was fine, but I picture a much darker or troublesome character than what we got. I know the idea is that the troubles and darkness that plagued Poe in his life was supposed to come from this incident, but that did not full work for me.

The Raven creature looked fine, but most of the rest of this film was unremarkable. It was fine and an okay watch, except the fact that it deals with the life of one of the most amazing personas of the 19th century. It felt very surface in many ways, which is not bad, but it is not the standout that I had hoped it would be.

I am still looking for that seminal performance of Edgar Allan Poe. Maybe one day…

2.8 stars

As I opened up Netflix to see what was on the streaming service, I discovered a film called Last Seen Alive featuring Gerard Butler. It was listed as the number one movie on the streaming service. I had never heard of it, but the length of the film fit nicely into the time I had available, so I decided to give it a watch.

In the film, Gerard Butler played Will, the husband of Lisa (Jaimie Alexander). Will and Lisa were having problems in their marriage and Lisa was needing a break. So Will was taking her to her parents where she planned onstaying.

Needing to stop for gas, Lisa disappeared after going into the station. Will looked desperately around, but he could not find her, and the station attendant was stonewalling him. Will called the police, speaking with Detective Patterson (Russell Hornsby), but the police began to suspect that Will may have been more involved than he was admitting.

This is a typically generic action/revenge movie. There is nothing here that hasn’t been seen before and is pretty predictable. Gerard Butler has played this same type of heroic role several times in his career. He was fine. I like Russell Hornsby, whom I knew from TV’s Grimm. Jaimie Alexander, aka Sif from the MCU, did not have much to do.

There was an explosion during the film that looked absolutely horrible. The CGI on the fire appeared very amateurish.

I did not hate the film. In fact, I was engaged in parts of it. There just did not seem to be much reason for it. It had nothing original to say and moved rapidly through the story it was telling. It was not a bad time watching it, but you’ve got to shut off your brain and not think too much.

2.75 stars

Prime Video had a new horror/comedy film on its streaming service this weekend called My Best Friend’s Exorcism.

According to IMDB, “The year is 1988. High school sophomores Abby (Elsie Fisher) and Gretchen (Amiah Miller) have been best friends since fourth grade. But after an evening of skinny-dipping goes disastrously wrong, Gretchen begins to act…different. She’s moody. She’s irritable. And bizarre incidents keep happening whenever she’s nearby. Abby’s investigation leads her to some startling discoveries-and by the time their story reaches its terrifying conclusion, the fate of Abby and Gretchen will be determined by a single question: Is their friendship powerful enough to beat the devil?”

I was liking the beginning of this movie. It was set in the 80s, for some reason, and we had a school setting similar to the typical movie school we see. At first, I thought things were going well. With Gretchen possessed, she turned into the ultimate mean girl and was doing terribly cruel things to her friends. However, the film went way off the rails in the second half when Abby started to look into ways to help Gretchen.

The tone of this movie was all over the place. Many times blending comedy with horror is a difficult thing to do and this film simply could not handle it. There was too much silliness that made little to no sense and it took whatever potential positives that was here and tossed it aside.

The performances were pretty weak. There was no subtlety to any of the performances in My Best Friend’s Exorcism. They introduced a character named Christian Lemon (Christopher Lowell) that was nothing more than a cartoon figure. There is no seriousness in that character at all. His involvement in the third act was one of the worst parts of the film. It felt like Shaggy from Scooby Doo was here to try and perform the exorcism.

There were some interesting moments here and there, but the fluctuating tones and the detour that the story took took any possible positives and sent them straight to Hell.

2.3 stars

Bros arrived in theaters this weekend with a rom-com unlike any we have seen before. Bros represents a giant step forward for the LBGTQ + community as there is a gay couple at the heart of the story. However, it was never going to matter unless the movie was funny and the story was strong. Fortunately for Bros, it is both funny and strong.

Bobby (Billy Eichner) was a sardonic, sarcastic podcaster who was alone. Billy claimed to enjoy being on his own and resisted any sort of real connection in a relationship, preferring the shallow and unsatisfying ones. Things began to change when he met Aaron (Luke Macfarlane) at a club and became intrigued by the handsome lawyer.

The film then dealt with a series of conflicts between the pairing that threatened to break apart the relationship that had the potential to be great for both of them.

I am going to be fully transparent here. There were some scenes early on in this movie that made me uncomfortable while watching it in the theater. However, as the movie moved on, I was charmed by the two actors and what they were doing with their characters’ relationship. They were remarkably easy to root for and the chemistry between them easily carried chunks of the film.

Eichner and Macfarlane exchanged fire dialogue in both the fun, flirty manner as well as the sharp, biting tone that the second half of the film adopted. The film was extremely well written and gave us two characters who were real people and who exceeded the gay stereotypes that are used in many entertainment projects.

Not only did they avoid the stereotypes, the film had the conflicts that threatened the relationship come from within the two damaged characters instead of leaving it up to some contrived plot point. There was an authentic feel to the story and the characters living in it.

There were some funny moments in the movie, but I did not think it was the funniest movie of the summer, which was a comment that I heard about it. I did laugh several times though and it was an enjoyable watch. It definitely fell into the style of film from Judd Apatow, who was a producer on this. It’s more of a dramedy than anything else. The humor though is very natural and works in the style.

While the first act had some uncomfortable moments for me, it was worth it to get to the second and third acts where these people showed us that romance can be for anyone.

3.7 stars