Movie Review: Set It Up (2018)

Genre: Romantic Comedy  

Director: Claire Scanlon  

Starring: Zoey Deutch, Glen Powell, Lucy Liu, Taye Diggs  

Running Time: 105 minutes  

Synopsis: In New York City, Harper (Zoey Deutch) and Charlie (Glen Powell) are two overworked assistants. Harper's boss is celebrity sports journalist Kirsten (Lucy Liu), while Charlie serves venture capitalist Rick (Taye Diggs). Realizing they will not have a life unless their bosses are distracted by romance, Harper and Charlie concoct a plan to have Kirsten and Rick meet and fall in love. 

What Works Well: The writing is occasionally witty, and Zoey Deutch brings quirky self-aware energy to Harper's frazzled life. 

What Does Not Work As Well: As predictable as rom coms get, this one is beset by the protagonists meekly surrendering to obnoxious boss behaviour, and for dubious reasons. Harper is hoping to become a writer having never written anything, and Charlie at age 28 is still at the bottom rung of his career ladder (but somehow hanging on to a glamorous model as a girlfriend). Maybe Harper and Charlie deserve each other, but they don't earn central roles in any romance. The Cupid contrivances to match Rick with Kirsten (including engineering an elevator mis-hap and a kiss-cam moment at Yankee Stadium) are exceptionally far fetched.

Key Quote:

Harper: Hard-to-get makes no sense. It's evolutionarily unsound. Why would a caveman want a cave woman who was like 'Go get me food, and when you come back maybe there will be a cave for you, maybe there won't be'.

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Movie Review: Hit Man (2023)

Genre: Crime Comedy  

Director: Richard Linklater  

Starring: Glen Powell, Adria Arjona  

Running Time: 115 minutes  

Synopsis: In New Orleans, Gary Johnson (Glen Powell) is a college philosophy teacher who helps the police department on the side. He discovers a knack for posing as a fake hitman to intercept criminals seeking an assassin-for-hire, and achieves a high conviction rate much to the chagrin of Jasper (Austin Amelio), the officer he replaced. But an encounter with Madison (Adria Arjona), who is seeking to kill her abusive husband, takes a different turn when Gary convinces her to abandon her plans and flee the marriage instead. Gary and Madison subsequently start a torrid romance as he maintains the pretense of being a hitman, but when a real crime occurs, Gary faces awkward questions.

What Works Well: Loosely based on Gary Johnson's real life experiences, this is a wacky story of deception, stings, jealousy, romance, and crime. Glen Powell has plenty of fun in a variety of disguises and personas offering assassination services to a succession of low-lifes and desperados, cleverly complementing a running college lecture thread about the capacity for change and self-recognition. The many narrative currents include film noir shadings, allowing Adria Arjona to swirl between victim, schemer, seductress, and perpetrator. Austin Amelio adds menace as the highly-strung but still perceptive Jasper. 

What Does Not Work As Well: The script (co-written by director Richard Linklater and Powell) repeatedly shifts gears with notable clunkiness. Smart truth-is-stranger-than-fiction comedy yields to sizzling romance, before much more serious crime and convoluted deception take over. The characters struggle to convince through the transitions, the script driving events more so than coherent motivations.

Key Quote:

Gary Johnson: All pie is good pie.

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Movie Review: Twisters (2024)

Genre: Disaster Thriller  

Director: Lee Isaac Chung  

Starring: Daisy Edgar-Jones, Glen Powell  

Running Time: 122 minutes  

Synopsis: As a college student, Kate Carter (Daisy Edgar-Jones) lost three good friends when her tornado-taming science project ended in tragedy. Five years later, fellow survivor Javi (Anthony Ramos) convinces Kate to return to tornado chasing, this time equipped with military grade equipment to better measure and predict the twisters' behaviour. With multiple storms brewing in Oklahoma's tornado alley, Kate and Javi tangle with a maverick crew led by brash YouTuber Tyler Owens (Glen Powell), who chases tornadoes for clicks.

What Works Well: In this reimagining of the 1996 original, the special effects are spectacular, and Kate's backstory, while obvious, carries an impact. Daisy Edgar-Jones and Glen Powell have the necessary charisma and confidence to stare down mother nature's appetite for destruction, while the wide open Oklahoma plains and muddy roads create a suitable backdrop for multiple episodes of high-speed, high-carnage mayhem.

What Does Not Work As Well: Kate's instinctive gift of predicting the weather is overplayed, while the scientific and corruption aspects are flash-fried and quickly dismissed in the rush to the next twisty highlight. The running time is too long, and repetition breeds familiarity as Kate finds herself in one too many twisters.

Conclusion: Devoid of much logic, but still a twisting, shouting, blast.

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Movie Review: Anyone But You (2023)

Genre: Romantic Comedy  

Starring: Sydney Sweeney, Glen Powell, Dermot Mulroney, Bryan Brown, Alexandra Shipp  

Director: Will Gluck  

Running Time: 103 minutes  

Synopsis: In Boston, law student Bea (Sydney Sweeney) and investment banker Ben (Glen Powell) enjoy an idyllic meet cute and a great first date, but misunderstandings quickly transform their burgeoning romance into mutual antagonism. Months later they meet again at the Sydney destination wedding of Bea's sister Halle (Hadley Robinson). Bea and Ben set their differences aside and pretend to be a couple to avoid ruining the event, although both their ex-lovers are also invited.

What Works Well: The Sydney locations are scenic, Sydney Sweeney and Glen Powell are a photogenic couple (and frequently under-dress to impress), and a few of the jokes work. A romantic rescue scene in Sydney harbour captures a warm spark.

What Does Not Work As Well: This is as generic as romantic comedies can get, with aggravatingly cliched supporting characters, overly-familiar simplistic complications, unnecessary vulgarity overreaching for edginess, all adults behaving with the immaturity of teenagers, and a nauseatingly saccharine soundtrack. Sydney Sweeney's monotonal performance reeks of awkward disinterest.

Conclusion: Anyone but these two.



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