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: The Threesome (2025)

Genre: Romantic Comedy  

Director: Chad Hartigan  

Starring: Zoey Deutch, Jonah Hauer-King, Ruby Cruz  

Running Time: 112 minutes  

Synopsis: In Little Rock, Arkansas, sound engineer Connor (Jonah Hauer-King) still has a crush on food server Olivia (Zoey Deutch). One night they meet the lonely Jenny (Ruby Cruz) and engage in a threesome. Afterwards Connor and Olivia start a serious romance and she is soon pregnant. But complications arise when Jenny reappears in their lives, with news of her own. 

What Works Well: Connor's gay friend Greg (Jaboukie Young-White) adds a few moments of levity.

What Does Not Work As Well: This is a limp romantic comedy with barely any romance and just a bit of humour. The three main characters allow irresponsible behaviour to run their lives (Olivia is also having an affair with a married man and neglects birth control; Jenny respects her conservative parents except when she is engaging in threesomes and unprotected sex), and then they all moan endlessly about how hard it all is. Somehow this soulless exercise in obnoxious characters getting what they deserve is dragged out to close to two hours.

Key Quote:

Connor: I thought you were on the pill.

Olivia: It's hard to remember you know. You have to take one every single day.

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Movie Review: Juror #2 (2024)

Genre: Courtroom Drama  

Director: Clint Eastwood  

Starring: Nicholas Hoult, Toni Collette, J.K. Simmons, Zoey Deutch, Leslie Bibb, Kiefer Sutherland  

Running Time: 114 minutes  

Synopsis: In Savannah, Georgia, Justin Kemp (Nicholas Hoult) is called to jury duty for the trial of James Sythe (Gabriel Basso), who is accused of murdering his girlfriend Kendall on a rainy night after a quarrel at a bar. As prosecutor Faith Killebrew (Toni Collette) and public defender Eric Resnick (Chris Messina) present their arguments, Justin keeps secret the fact that he was at the bar on the fateful night and may be involved in Kendall's death. A recovering alcoholic with his wife Allison (Zoey Deutch) in the final weeks of a high-risk pregnancy, Justin's decisions in the jury room will have far-reaching implications. 

What Works Well: A compelling personal conflict of interest presents a gateway into broader social dilemmas. Juror Justin is a family man reconstituting his life but hiding a heavy burden of guilt, while the accused is a career criminal responsible for societal disorder but now vehemently denying harming his girlfriend. Surrounding them are an ambitious district attorney, other jurors seeking expediency rather than justice, and a victim who cannot speak for herself. Director Clint Eastwood reveals plot secrets and gnawing suspicions in measured doses, gradually increasing tension and achieving admirable shifts in sympathy. 

What Does Not Work As Well: Beyond the wild coincidence of Justin being called to be a juror for this particular case, the premise requires exceptionally sloppy work by the medical examiner and police investigators. One of the jurors (J.K. Simmons) and the prosecutor then self-appoint themselves as detectives. Kiefer Sutherland suffers neglect in an underdeveloped role as a lawyer. 

Key Quote:

Justin Kemp: Maybe I didn't hit a deer.



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The Movies Of Zoey Deutch

All movies starring Zoey Deutch and reviewed on the Ace Black Movie Blog are reviewed below:

Good Kids (2016)

Why Him? (2016)

The Disaster Artist (2017)

Set It Up (2018)

Juror #2 (2024)

The Threesome (2025)

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The Movie Star Index is here.

Movie Review: Why Him? (2016)

A culture clash comedy, Why Him? contains a few over-the-top laughs but runs out of ideas quite quickly.

In the San Jose area, Stanford University student Stephanie Fleming (Zoey Deutch) is the girlfriend of slightly eccentric tech millionaire Laird Mayhew (James Franco). Stephanie is close with her dad Ned (Bryan Cranston), and invites him along with her mother Barb (Megan Mullally) and younger brother Scotty to come for a visit and meet Laird.

The conservative Ned runs an old fashioned printing business in Michigan, and is now struggling to make ends meet. Upon arrival the Flemings are taken aback by Laird's wealth, lifestyle, gadget-filled house and constant vulgarity. However Laird is also kind hearted and honest. Despite having nothing in common, Laird insists on gaining Ned's approval to marry Stephanie.

Directed by John Hamburg and co-produced by Jonah Hill and Ben Stiller (among others), Why Him? riffs on the familiar Meet The Parents theme. Here instead of the happy young couple being intimidated by overbearing parents, the tables are turned as Ned and Barb find themselves out of their depth in Laird's domain. The young (but still too old for Stephanie) tech success story is a heavily tattooed millionaire without a filter but with a dream house, and culturally on another planet from Grand Rapids, Michigan.

The sheer presence of James Franco letting loose as Laird is the source of most of the film's humour, with Bryan Cranston providing the perfect foil as the often speechless Ned. They clash over food, language, money, technology, and Stephanie's future career plans, with Ned never finding a level of comfort and Laird mostly wondering what all the fuss is about.

The cast also includes Keegan-Michael Key as Gustav, Laird's friend, sparring partner and house manager. His presence never quite clicks, in a sign of the film's lack of depth.

Once the tone is set in the first third Why Him? starts to lose momentum. Few new elements are introduced, several concepts are half-baked and abandoned altogether, and many of the vulgar jokes loop for the third and fourth time. A hacking sub-plot is hurriedly introduced to no great purpose, and Hamburg blandly steers the movie towards familiar platitudes, without answering questions as to why a profanity-laden comedy would seek a cuddly family-friendly resolution.

Why Him? laughs at mutually incompatible first impressions, but does not progress much beyond that.

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Movie Review: Good Kids (2016)

An end-of-high-school comedy, Good Kids is about 35 years behind the times.

Four brainy 18 year old friends who have emphasized academic achievement over having fun throughout their school years arrive at their final summer before college. Suddenly, they decide to let loose for a few weeks. Andy (Nicholas Braun) becomes a toy boy tennis pro servicing the sexual needs of club cougars, including Gabby (Ashley Judd). Nora (Zoey Deutch) seeks romance and starts a relationship with a 30 year old Australian man. Aspiring chef Spice (Israel Broussard) goes looking for a straightforward sexual release. And Lionel (Mateo Arias), better known as the "The Lion", starts experimenting with drugs.

As the previously good kids go wild, Andy realizes that he harbours feelings for Nora, but things get more complicated when his dishy online pal Danya (Tasie Lawrence) arrives for a visit from India.

Written and directed by Chris McCoy, Good Kids is astonishingly bad. Apparently oblivious that this sub-genre of sexual high jinx by high school kids was thoroughly chewed and spit out in the early to mid 1980s, Good Kids spends its entire running length in the putrid landfill of old garbage ideas. McCoy does not offer a single original reason for this film to exist, as his characters behave with plastic predictability and spout recycled dialogue on their way from one over-familiar situation to the next.

Kid caught naked in the open? Run-in with the local cops? Suddenly falling in love with a friend? Drugs impairing work? Clueless parents? An older man playing a teen for a fool? And the ever original final party that ends in a brawl? All the boxes are ticked as Good Kids revives one moribund cliche per scene with spiritless monotony.

Ashley Judd gets a couple of scenes as an oversexed rich bored wife looking for a cheap thrill with a teen, and it is sad to find a once-classy actress reduced to an appearance in this bilge. Elsewhere Zoey Deutch (daughter of Leah Thompson and director Howard Deutch) reveals hints that she deserves better material.

The Good Kids want to dabble with being bad, but instead stumble into thoroughly dreadful territory.

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