Film

Newness

A 2017 romance that unflinches from modern dating's paradoxes: infinite choice breeds anxiety, apps promise connection but deliver surfaces, and two people genuinely trying still don't know how to be honest. Shot with unfussy clarity in contemporary LA. For anyone who's felt the strange loneliness of swiping, or watched someone they cared about disappear into their phone.

TMDb rating3.1

Should you watch it?

Watch it if you like romances that poke at modern dating apps with an uneasy, observational eye and don't rush to tidy up the messy feelings underneath.

Skip it if its takes on swipe culture are more knowing than fresh, so if you've had your fill of apps-and-LA stories, expect familiar ground.

What it asks of you: Patience with talky, unhurried scenes and a willingness to sit with discomfort; at 112 minutes it moves at a conversational pace, lingering more than it rushes.

If you liked this

Crazy, Stupid, Love.2011

Gaspar Noé's provocation about sex, desire, and two people unable to communicate honestly despite — or because of — total physical access. Raw and uncomfortable in ways that linger.

But Extremely graphic. Long stretches feel like punishment rather than insight. The film doesn't flinch, which some will read as either courage or cruelty.

Crazy, Stupid, Love. poster

The Worst Person in the World2021

A woman in her late twenties navigates careers, men, and the feeling that she's living wrong. Funny and devastating at once, with genuine compassion for her confusion rather than judgment.

But Norwegian, subtitled. Indie pacing means it trusts you to fill silences. Some will find that meditative; others will find it slow.

The Worst Person in the World poster

Fleabag2016

A woman who talks to camera about sex, shame, and her family with comedy that cuts. Phoebe Waller-Bridge writes desire and loneliness with such precise ugliness that it becomes beautiful.

But The meta-conceit won't work for everyone. Some find the direct address gimmicky. The humour is often cruel, especially toward the protagonist.

Fleabag poster

Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Newness

The wildcard

Something you would not have found on your own.

Scenes from a Marriage2021

Both examine how physical and emotional access paradoxically create distance. Both understand that knowing someone and trusting them are different things entirely.

Bergman's 1973 miniseries remade by Hagai Levi for HBO with Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain. Eight episodes of a marriage's violence — emotional, sexual, psychological. Elia Kazan said it destroyed his certainty about his own marriage. It will destroy yours.

But Relentlessly bleak about intimacy. The couple are often repellent. Some will experience it as profound; others as misogyny. Prepare for arguments during and after.

Scenes from a Marriage poster
More like this (6)

Before Sunrise1995

Two people meet on a train, spend one night walking and talking through Vienna. Richard Linklater makes a feature from conversation alone, proof that watching people connect is enough.

But Nothing happens but dialogue. If you need plot momentum or will find philosophical talk from beautiful people indulgent, skip it.

Before Sunrise poster

Normal People2020

Marianne and Connell across twelve years, on and off, unable to untangle sex from love from class from shame. Lenny Abrahamson directs bodies as honestly as any television has managed.

But The sex scenes are neither titillating nor censored; they're clinical and exposed. Some viewers find that more uncomfortable than conventional nudity. Episodes are short, which changes the pacing rhythm.

Normal People poster

Beau Is Afraid2023

Ari Aster's formally inventive nightmare about a man drowning in expectation, obligation, and the weight of his mother's love. Weird and committed and entirely uninterested in reassuring you.

But Exhaustingly dark. Surrealist in ways that prioritize mood over clarity. Nearly two hours of a man suffering. Does not remotely lighten.

Beau Is Afraid poster

The Spectacular Now2013

Two teenagers in love in a small town, knowing it won't last, living it anyway. James Ponsoldt shoots summer with the tenderness of remembering something already gone.

But Slower and less ironic than its subject matter might suggest. Genuinely sappy in places. If you want your young love complicated or cynical, this wants to believe.

The Spectacular Now poster

Bread and Roses2000

Both root desire and choice in economics and circumstance. Neither treats millennial malaise or precarity as merely personal — both ask what systems make connection possible or impossible.

Ken Loach's film about Latina janitors in Los Angeles organizing for dignity. Politically committed but moves like a love story between women, with the same bewilderment at what keeps us together.

But Agitprop dressed as realism. If you dislike cinema with a cause, you'll feel preached at. Some political clarity traded for nuance. Workmanlike direction.

Bread and Roses poster

Caramel2007

Both are about how the body becomes a text and a battleground; how the small rituals of appearance and touch carry weight far beyond vanity. Both make space for tenderness without demanding melodrama.

Nadine Labaki's debut in a Lebanese beauty salon. Five women, multiple intimacies, one shared space. Filmed with warmth and colour in a place where beauty salons are oases. Small, alive, unsentimental about how women sustain each other.

But The political subtext can feel tacked on. Slight in structure, almost plotless. Resistance to dramatic payoff will frustrate viewers wanting narrative momentum.

Caramel poster

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