Tag: modern dating

SWIPED (2025) – Review

Feels like it’s been a while since moviegoers have gotten a feature about a real-life invention that had a pretty big impact on the world, or society in general. Sure, they briefly touched on the origins of the kids’ toy superstar BARBIE in that recent blockbuster. Plus, we’ve gotten films about shoes (AIR), tech devices (BLACKBERRY), other toys (THE BEANIE BUBBLE), and a computer game (TETRIS). Predating all of them (can it be 15 years old?) is the Oscar-winning story of a website, THE SOCIAL NETWORK. So, when do we get another movie about an online “game changer”? And that leads into this new flick about another website that’s perhaps best known as a phone “app”. I’d tell you its name, but you can probably guess it from this movie’s title, SWIPED.


Now, the story’s real focus is actually a fast-talking (and fast-thinking) tech innovator with the “superhero alias” sounding moniker, Whitney Wolfe (Lily James). We first encountered her about a dozen years ago as she crashed a big “tech bro” bash on the Santa Monica pier. She’s trying to raise interest (and funds) for her website that matches volunteers with charities. After several “strike outs”, she makes a connection with Sean (another cartoony-but-real name) Rad (Ben Schnetzer), who tells her to drop by his development firm, Hatch Labs IAC Incubator. Naturally, she’s there a few hours later before Sean arrives. But he’s got a big meeting with a potential client for his restaurant rewards app Cardify. Sean figures she can pose as his “gal Friday”, but Whitney surprises him by helping “seal the deal”. She becomes part of his team, proving invaluable once again when Cardify “flatlines”. At a big pitch meeting, several staffers bounce around ideas for a dating site/app, but it’s Whitney who comes up with the perfect name for it: Tinder. But they need to spread the word, so she travels to her old college sorority at SMU with work pal Tisha (Myha’la) and due to her people skills, hustle, and quick thinking, the app sweeps the school. Back in LA, the company’s celebrations get a boost from Sean’s new hire, his old pal Justin (Jackson White). Despite her better judgement, Whitney begins seeing him socially. But her rising profile threatens Justin, as he and Sean squeeze her out of the publicity swirl around the company and the increasingly popular app. Things take a dark turn when the board ignores complaints about graphic photos posted, and when Justin becomes possessive after Whitney breaks off their relationship. Soon, she must make a stand and a decision: stay and fight for what she’s due, or leave and start over.

Ms. James is establishing herself as one of the busiest actresses working today. It was only a few weeks ago that I was enjoying her work in the little-seen gem of a thriller RELAY (really, catch it when it starts streaming). Here she gets a chance to really flex her skills in comedy, romance, and some heavy drama (with a few thriller elements this time, too). James has us rooting for Whitney from beginning to end, making us invested in very tough choices. She gets great support from Myha’la who encourages, but speaks up when “her girl” fumbles the ball in not helping her “sisters’ climb the corporate “ladder”. As for the fellas’, Schetzner is a cool, affable partner/boss until fame makes him “flip a switch”, surprisng us with his cool, aloof ‘tude. Ditto for his “bro” Justin, played with easy-going “puppy dog” charm by White until he’s threatened by Whitney and goes right into the “ex from Hell” mode. But Wolfe does encounter a nice “dude” outisde the office in Andrey Andreev played by Lily’s former “Downton Abbey” TV series co-star Dan Stevens. He’s a somewhat daffy ultra-rich tech mogul out of Eastern Europe who tries to “poach” Whitney for his dating site Badoo. not for her looks but for her keen creative input and expertise. A few other familiar faces pop up in brief supporting roles, including Joely Fisher, Clea DuVall, and that “silver fox” Dermot Mulroney.

Director/co-screenwriter Rachel Lee Goldenberg has crafted a mostly inspiring true tale for young women trying to break into the male-dominated tech industry. But it’s also a cautionary tale, which shifts so abruptly in tone in its second act, that some viewers may get a touch of cinematic “whiplash”. The lead-up and launch of Tinder plays much like a light-hearted romp, as Wolfe works the college kids and charms her open-minded boss in a frothy modern workplace comedy. This even extends to the sweet at first) flirtation with Justin. Then the d#*k pics flood the servers, and the darkness begins. Almost all the fellas seem to have drunk from a water cooler filled with Dr.Jekyll’s old “Mr. Hyde mix”. This leads to the big nosedive as we wait for Wolfe to “pull up” and stick the landing. Really, the soured office romance often plays like a made-for-cable-TV Lifetime flick. Of course, we do get a token “good guy” to not paint every male as a leering, abusive goon (and yes, I know that women in past office-set films were either bubble-headed bimbos or shrews, but this still stings a bit). These tonal shifts and pacing problems ultimately take the needed zip and good intentions away from the true life story of SWIPED.

2 Out of 4

SWIPED streams exclusively on Hulu beginning on Friday, September 19, 2025

OH, HI! – Review

(L-R) Logan Lerman and Molly Gordon in OH, HI! Courtesy of Sony Pictures Classics

Modern dating is the focus of writer/director Sophie Brook’s OH HI!, in which a couple, played by Molly Gordon and Logan Lerman, take a weekend trip to the country. The film is billed as a comedy about a relationship, or as the film has it, a “situationship,” but comedy/rom com/horror might be more accurate, as the comedy designation is undermined from the start. The film opens by flashing forward to the end, as Iris (Gordon) confesses to the camera about her “bad decisions,” before we flashback to the beginning of the couple’s weekend trip to the country.

That opening gives the dark comedy a bit of horror film edge right at the start, and we are never sure which way it is going to go as it unfolds. Comedy/horror may be a common genre but the rom com/horror combo is a more challenging match, no matter how dark the rom com, but Sophie Brook does raise some interesting modern dating questions, and the strong cast certainly does everything they can to help it work. OH, HI!, which debuted in New York at the Tribeca Film Festival, is undeniably weird, although whether that weirdness works for you or not depends on individual taste, but at least some audiences may find this ambitious film exhausting and fizzling by the end.

The film follows up it’s unsettling, edgy opening by flashing back to the beginning of the story, as the couple, Iris (Gordon) and Isaac (Lerman), are happily driving through the Upstate New York countryside, on their way to their farmhouse rental for their first weekend trip in High Falls (Iris’ misreading of a road sign gives the film’s title). Along the way, they pass red barns and idyllic scenery, while bubbling Iris playfully teases more reserved Issac. They stop at a roadside stand selling strawberries, where they have a little rom com incident, and a surprising bit of flirtation between Isaac and the strawberry lady, right in from of Iris.

Arriving at the rental farmhouse with plenty of strawberries, the film’s tone returns to blissful rom com, as Iris and Isaac settle in for their romantic weekend. Isaac cooks an elegant dinner of scallops, they drink wine, and dine out on the porch under the stars and string lights. Their conversation reveals their relationship is fairly new, and they are still getting to know each other.

The film’s set-up is interesting if unsettling, part comedy with a tense horror undercurrent, as it deals with the pitfalls and challenges of dating through apps, and raises intriguing questions about relationships, interpersonal communications, expectations, honesty, and romantic dreams. But OH HI! gets increasingly dark as it goes, with an unnerving encounter with an angry neighbor (David Cross) and a series of bad decisions on the part of the couple, particularly after discovering some S&M items in a locked closet leads to a situation that seems headed towards a contemporary MISERY and full-blown horror, as Iris becomes increasingly crazy and Isaac reveals bracing level of arrogance. Why such a beautiful, intelligent woman as Iris would want to hold onto this spoiled, privileged man is puzzling. Nearly as puzzling is Isaac’s sense of privilege, as he clings to the idea that his dishonesty isn’t deceitful and somehow justified by a careful parsing of words.

Yet director Sophie Brooks flips the switch again, and heads back to comedy and farce, with the arrival of some surprise intruders, Iris’ best friend Max (Geraldine Viswanathan) and her boyfriend Kenny (John Reynolds), both wonderfully funny, providing a much needed interruption.

Whether you like this switching back and forth between rom com and horror is up to your individual taste but it didn’t appeal to this reviewer. Further, it seemed like the repeated switches became wearing, and even caused the story to fizzle by the end.

The one thing that does lift this film out of the corner it has painted itself into is the arrival of Geraldine Viswanathan and John Reynolds. They offer a bright, outright funny turn that gets things back on track. At least until the script again jumps the rails, and becomes tedious and nonsensical as it stumbles towards an awkward end.

While the script goes down its rabbit holes, one cannot fault the actors themselves, who turn in excellent performances that often lift the film above the script. Gordon and Lerman have nice chemistry between them, which allows the actors to bring depth to their characters and scenes in increasingly strange situations. But Geraldine Viswanathan and John Reynolds are the real standouts, marvelous in their roles as a functional couple, Max and Kenny, and the have great comic skills and chemistry to boot. They really do rescue the whole film midway, breaking it out of what looks like a descent into an inescapable pit of creepiness, although their efforts aren’t enough to save the film in the end.

Still, OH, HI! deserves credit for it’s high-concept intentions, even if it ultimately is brought down by its constantly-switching, mixed-tone script. Certainly, the film has something to say but it also has some weird ideas about how to say it. Despite all that, OH, HI! has its moments of humor, insight and brightness, often thanks to its strong cast.

OH, HI! opens Friday, July 25, 2025, in theaters.

RATING: 2 out of 4 stars