Coming Soon – Your Place Or Mine
Here’s a look at Your Place Or Mine coming to Netflix on February 10th.
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Romance
Rosaline
- Title: Rosaline
- IMDb: link
Who did Romeo (Kyle Allen) love before Juliet (Isabela Merced)? That’s the question Rosaline answers by casting Kaitlyn Dever in the title role as the Romeo’s ex who he unceremoniously dumps after meeting Juliet at a masquerade ball. Adding some modern dialogue and sensibilities, Rosaline has fun with some of the goofier aspects of Shakespeare’s play while also blending in some Taming of the Shrew vibes for out titular character.
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Cyrano
- Title: Cyrano
- IMDb: link
While it may not be my favorite adaptation of Edmond Rostand‘s 19th Century play, Cyrano proves to be a perfect vehicle for Peter Dinklage who shines as the title character. Our brave and witty protagonist yearns for the beautiful Roxanne (Haley Bennett) only to see her attentions fall on the gaze of a strapping young soldier (Kelvin Harrison Jr.) instead, who Cyrano agrees to help woo the woman they both love while hiding the depth of his true feelings from them both.
All the basic trappings from the story are here including Ben Mendelsohn as yet another, more villainous, rival for Roxanne’s affections and the humorous balcony sequence in yet another stylish period piece from director Joe Wright. Added to the mix are a number of musical numbers which vacillate between additions or distractions from the main plot at various points in the tale.
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Marry Me
- Title: Marry Me
- IMDb: link
With a pair of likable stars and a braindead romcom plot, Marry Me is pretty much exactly what you would expect. The unlikley pairing between celebrity Kat Valdez (Jennifer Lopez) and schoolteacher Charlie Gibert (Owen Wilson) comes about through convoluted means when his friend (Sarah Silverman) drags him to Kat’s live concert where her live engagement goes sideways due to her fiancé’s (Maluma) infidelity and she marries a random member of the audience instead.
The saving grace to balance the inherit weakness to the plot is the charm of the two stars. And Lopez and Owens are good here as characters who seem smarter than to get themselves mixed up in such a ridiculous circumstance. An American version of Notting Hill with a heavy amount of social media and brand perception thrown in, Marry Me is far from a must-see, but if you are forced to sit down for a romcom, you could certainly do worse.
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A Nice Girl Like You
- Title: A Nice Girl Like You
- IMDb: link
Lucy Hale stars as pornophobic violinist who attempts to become less inhibited following her break-up with her boyfriend (Stephen Friedrich). Adapted from Ayn Carrillo Gailey’s book Pornology, the idea for the film is to follow the misadventures of a “good girl” investigating the world of pornography and sexual enlightenment with the help of her friends (Mindy Cohn, Jackie Cruz, and Adhir Kalyan) while also dating a new man (Leonidas Gulaptis) and struggling to earn a prestigious position with the New York Philharmonic.
While the book has received praise for being witty and hilarious, the film far is more luke-warm romcom than edgy sexcapade. Hale is likable enough in the role of the wide-eyed innocent entering a different world out of curiosity, and to prove something to herself, but the script doesn’t offer much of interest despite the subject matter. And for a film presumably based on real-life experiences, A Nice Girl Like You too often feels cliched and over-the-top. Some of the “humor” involves a horse taking a huge crap during a wedding, a public humiliation from a sexual psychic (Nadia Quinn), and a “cute” pregnancy scare.
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