Rye Lane (UK, 2023)
Rye Lane (UK, 2023)
Heartbroken mope meets a new potential love interest at a crappy London art opening. A day of adventure filled with odd, awkward interactions follows.
Got my hair cut correct like Anthony Mason
Re: Rye Lane (UK, 2023)
Well, if I'm the only one to have stumbled into this free-to-stream-on-tubi evening of entertaininess, then too bad for the rest of you.
An original take on the cliche-ridden and ever-more-tiresome romantic comedy genre, we get one of those everything-happens-in-one-day roller-coaster stories, like the recently reviewed Man Up, or perhaps Nick & Nora's Infinite Playlist. Like the former, it features the action unfolding mostly in a single London neighborhood, but has a scene by the banks of the Thames that seems similar to a spot where a Man Up scene was shot. What do I know? I've only transferred at Heathrow.
Like Nick & Nora, the two leads were young adults, although twenty-sump'n's in this case. Like Man Up, the male lead is getting over a heartbreak, and the female lead is kind of manic, dragging his mopey ass through the action, but just when you think you're in manic pixie dream girl territory, she becomes the deeper character.
It kind of plays like a screwball/romance hybrid, like Bringing Up Baby or the like, but goes deeper and has fun doing it. The first-time director has a cartoonish style, like young Spike Lee, but not quite like that, and they have a lot of interesting setup shots as a narrative advancement device, where one of the leads explains a story from the past and you simultaneously see the tale he or she is telling along with the characters in the present watching it.
That's fun, and the cinematographer is experimenting too, using bendy panoramic shots as he or she follows the pair down the road. Plus you get a surprise un-credited cameo from a Brit rom-com legend, that you may be forced to rewind to confirm who it is.
Said legend is the only recognizable face in the film, so everybody's a newcomer, the material is fresh, the budget is tight but doesn't show, and it's largely set against a very familiar vapid art scene which, if it doesn't remind you of your twenties, well, then, lucky you. But it reminded me of mine, and I tip my entertainment hat to them. Apart from thick London accents, and sometimes inscrutable London slang, that each might have you reaching for the captioning button, what's not to like?
An original take on the cliche-ridden and ever-more-tiresome romantic comedy genre, we get one of those everything-happens-in-one-day roller-coaster stories, like the recently reviewed Man Up, or perhaps Nick & Nora's Infinite Playlist. Like the former, it features the action unfolding mostly in a single London neighborhood, but has a scene by the banks of the Thames that seems similar to a spot where a Man Up scene was shot. What do I know? I've only transferred at Heathrow.
Like Nick & Nora, the two leads were young adults, although twenty-sump'n's in this case. Like Man Up, the male lead is getting over a heartbreak, and the female lead is kind of manic, dragging his mopey ass through the action, but just when you think you're in manic pixie dream girl territory, she becomes the deeper character.
It kind of plays like a screwball/romance hybrid, like Bringing Up Baby or the like, but goes deeper and has fun doing it. The first-time director has a cartoonish style, like young Spike Lee, but not quite like that, and they have a lot of interesting setup shots as a narrative advancement device, where one of the leads explains a story from the past and you simultaneously see the tale he or she is telling along with the characters in the present watching it.
That's fun, and the cinematographer is experimenting too, using bendy panoramic shots as he or she follows the pair down the road. Plus you get a surprise un-credited cameo from a Brit rom-com legend, that you may be forced to rewind to confirm who it is.
Said legend is the only recognizable face in the film, so everybody's a newcomer, the material is fresh, the budget is tight but doesn't show, and it's largely set against a very familiar vapid art scene which, if it doesn't remind you of your twenties, well, then, lucky you. But it reminded me of mine, and I tip my entertainment hat to them. Apart from thick London accents, and sometimes inscrutable London slang, that each might have you reaching for the captioning button, what's not to like?
Got my hair cut correct like Anthony Mason
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cal sharpie
- Posts: 846
- Joined: Fri Dec 28, 2018 2:07 pm
Re: Rye Lane (UK, 2023)
I did see it but had kind of forgotten that I had. I remember liking it okay but it took reading the recap to remind me.