You’ve Got Male: Stone Adds to the Win Column with Delightful Debut
The New Romantic is a dramedy for the next generation that poses a couple of tough questions. Firstly, is Nora Ephron actually the mother of Zac Efron? And second, at what point does a relationship become transactional? Perhaps to the chagrin of younger audiences, Nora Ephron is not related to Zac, though she does leave an indelible mark on this story. First time director Carly Stone draws from the Ephron well a few times, including utilizing voiceover to help guide the narrative. But what makes this film special is not what it shares with its forebearers, but rather how it takes on that second question—illustrating the transactionality (sounds like a real word?) of modern romance in a nuanced way.
Blake, played by baby-faced Jessica Barden, is a college senior who writes a love and romance column for the school newspaper but is struggling to find inspiration with pushy frat bros who all want sex on the first date. A chance encounter leads her to Morgan’s (television’s Riverdale thesp Camila Mendes) apartment to retrieve her ID, and she finds her drinking and smoking weed with an older man. After sizing up the situation, Morgan insists that her older man will pay Blake to stay. Blake is at first reluctant to dip her toe in the sugar, but after further consideration (she talks it through with her cliché sassy black friend, and watches a YouTube video of a sugar baby explaining the distinction from prostitution), she agrees to give it a try, realizing this could be great source material for her column and could even lead to an award in Gonzo journalism.
Her client is an average looking rich divorcee, whom she finds charming at first, but gets creepier as the film progresses. She accompanies him to the wedding of another sugar daddy—the one from the scene with Morgan—who also comes onto her. Apparently he’s in an open relationship—but even on his wedding night? Where do you draw the line? At what point does the transactional become problematic? What initially is perceived as women empowerment turns into a dangerous series of interactions of escalating coercion and line crossing.
To the credit of Stone and her D.P. Michael McLaughlin, this looks nothing like a Nora Ephron movie — it’s darker and more life-like, conveying the frank realism of Blake’s situation. Not to say the story is bleak, there is a flash of hope with a fellow journalist, Jacob, played by Brett Dier, who turns out to be her knight in shining toga. Dier has natural comedy chops, and exudes such appealing charisma he could be the next Paul Rudd.
The New Romantic does contain some first-timer scrappiness but despite these flaws Stone’s overall direction is impressive and introduces us to an assured Canadiana voice; just like her characters, her writing is both witty and at times boundary pushing. You can’t fault her for wanting a happy ending, it is a rom-com after all, and audiences will be delighted to discover Dier’s acting chops as the surprise leading man. Even though the film is shot in a somewhat documentary-style, we wouldn’t want the worst for Blake. Fitting her story into an Ephron template, in this case at least, is a formula for success.
Reviewed on March 11th at the 2018 SXSW Film Festival – Narrative Feature Competition. 102 Mins.
★★★½/☆☆☆☆☆
