{"id":20183190,"date":"2025-07-23T12:02:04","date_gmt":"2025-07-23T19:02:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.metrosiliconvalley.com\/?p=20183190"},"modified":"2025-07-23T12:02:09","modified_gmt":"2025-07-23T19:02:09","slug":"film-review-oh-hi-sophie-brooks-logan-lerman-molly-gordon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.metrosiliconvalley.com\/film-review-oh-hi-sophie-brooks-logan-lerman-molly-gordon\/","title":{"rendered":"The Binding Ties in Sophie Brooks\u2019 \u2018Oh, Hi!\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Oh, Hi!<\/em> introduces itself with a brief preamble that suggests it\u2019s going to be a horror pic, then resets the action to \u201c36 Hours Earlier.\u201d We\u2019re immediately whisked to a car containing Iris (Molly Gordon) and her boyfriend Isaac (Logan Lerman) merrily singing along with a pop tune, on their way to a vacation rental\u2014their very first such as a couple\u2014in a country farm house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As far as that goes, this might as well really turn out to be a youth-market horror film. All of them start that same way, with foolishly joyous characters blissfully unaware that they\u2019re going to be slaughtered by the usual malevolent weirdo so many filmmakers can hardly resist using. In the case of Oh, Hi!<\/em> the filmmaker is Sophie Brooks, a native of London, England, now based in Brooklyn, NY.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Brooks\u2019 previous movie, The Boy Downstairs<\/em> (2017), was an urban romantic sitcom built along standard \u201coopsy-daisy\u201d lines\u2014so we get the idea that the horror reference in the new film\u2019s intro might just be more of a narrative \u201cmisdirection play.\u201d Faking one way but going another. Iris and Isaac\u2019s silly business with the roadside strawberry stand certainly promises light-hearted goofball flirtatiousness rather than full-on shocker, in a harmless wrapper.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The lovers find a collection of leather BDSM gear in a closet at the farm house and begin to experiment. Iris gets Isaac securely handcuffed to the bedposts, and suddenly a cloud passes over the would-be romantic interlude. The movie\u2019s mood darkens.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As brought out in her dialogue, Iris has a few built-in personality tics: she can\u2019t drink whiskey, doesn\u2019t like to read books, has an inordinate fondness for Casablanca<\/em>, etc. Personal taste issues that might seem unremarkable in a more relaxed setting all of a sudden take on sinister real-world meaning when one party is being held captive by another in an isolated house.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With Isaac unable to move, the two vacationers\u2019 ongoing conversation turns to things like relationship defining, arguing for its own sake, an anxious phone call to Iris\u2019 mother and a \u201chow-to-relate\u201d lesson. Iris is in charge, lawyering the situation. She\u2019s in complete control. Days go by with Isaac still tied up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s an unmistakable whiff of Stephen King\u2019s Misery<\/em> to this story, of course. Isaac makes the mistake of refusing to take Iris\u2019 emotional complaints seriously, and pays a price. But when he raises the issue of false imprisonment the trap just gets tighter. The intervention of Iris\u2019 friend Max (Geraldine Viswanathan) and Max\u2019s friend Kenny (John Reynolds) only leads to more anxious mumblecore. The tiresome, self-involved therapy-happy dialogue session among all four characters becomes its own horror flick. At least until the threat of physical danger improbably dissolves, in the last reel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But by then, do we care enough about Iris and Isaac to stick around and see what happens? Are any of these characters capable of unfastening themselves from themselves? Gordon, an experienced stage actor unafraid to help take a typical high school coming-of-age story like Olivia Wilde\u2019s 2019 Booksmart<\/em> to deadpan modern heights through the power of pure magnetism, handles the curious role of Iris almost as if it were an absurdist ritual.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By contrast, all Lerman (The Perks of Being a Wallflower<\/em>) has to do to establish Isaac is to play the role straight. Isaac is the saddest, most helpless kind of sex object for Iris. She uses him, in the screenplay written by director Brooks with Gordon, as an example of everyday mediocrity. Their individual limitations instantly label these two American consumers as emblematic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eric Rohmer would politely excuse himself from associating with any of these babies\u2014they need to grow up. Noah Baumbach would probably fall asleep in the first 30 minutes. Quentin Tarantino wouldn\u2019t leave a single character standing. Greta Gerwig would tear up the scenario\u2014no use sending it back for a rewrite. Don\u2019t take a first date to this one. Keep your distance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Opens July 24 at the Cinemark Century Redwood Downtown 20 in Redwood City.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The filmmaker\u2019s previous movie was a romantic sitcom, so we get the idea that a horror reference might just be a misdirection play.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14789,"featured_media":20183192,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","_expiration-date-status":"","_expiration-date":0,"_expiration-date-type":"","_expiration-date-categories":[],"_expiration-date-options":[]},"categories":[38],"tags":[20232,20230,20229,12362,20228,20231],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n