"Oh, Hi!" - An Enjoyable Romp Sure to Take Over the Internet

Whenever Gen Z and millennial filmmakers tackle issues in the dating space with a comedy-thriller edge, the discourse surrounding these films is often exceptionally annoying to suffer through. The films are often brutally unsubtle (by design), but by the time that TikTok gets ahold of them, everyone from behind their glass houses starts hailing them as testaments to the deep-rooted human experience on par with the works of Edgar Allen Poe or Sylvia Plath. And in all likelihood, when the very fun Logan Lerman and Molly Gordan led film, Oh, Hi! has its American theatrical release on July 25th, we will live through yet another round of sexually charged fancams and pseudo-intellectual conversations about what it means to be gaslit. 

In Oh, Hi! Molly Gordon and Logan Lerman co-star as Iris and Isaac, who are celebrating their very first romantic getaway together. When Isaac admits after a particularly romantic night that he isn’t looking for a committed relationship, things go awry as Iris leaves him chained to the bed, not letting him leave. It was written and directed by promising filmmaker, Sophie Brooks.

Filmmaking wise, there is not much about Oh, Hi! that leaves you particularly surprised. It’s very standardly shot, performed, and cut together. It has a more sexually charged first act than you may expect, even for the story at hand, that will make fans of both actors blush pretty heavily, but beyond that there is not much more on the table that is going to surprise you. This was something that I genuinely appreciated because at the very least, the film deeply understands its audience and leans heavily into its known strengths, while keeping your focus away from its shortcomings. 

Lerman and Gordon both give great performances, and have really charming chemistry with each other. The script, in the first act especially, gives them plenty of material to work with, and that initial argument about where their relationship stands is almost as squeamish as you can imagine. Geraldine Viswanathan, John Reynolds, and David Cross also give strong supporting performances that enhance a lot of the absurdism. Most of the film's best jokes come from these smaller characters. I do wish that we got more of Cross in particular, but when he’s on screen, he’s a riot. 

The film does occasionally feel a bit trapped inside of its own minimalist premise, and feels pressure to keep things moving past its welcome. Throughout the second act, the script struggles to come up with more believable, yet absurd ideas to keep Iris digging herself deeper into her kidnapping rut. It’s never not entertaining, but there is this underlying feeling that the filmmakers are sort of making everything up as they go along. Additionally, the final 15 minutes or so feels very contrived. There comes a point where everything feels as though it’s wrapped up relatively neatly. Characters have completed their arcs, there are very satisfying and well-written moments of suspense and re-incorporation, and the momentum of the film feels like it's (very successfully) built to its final moments… but then you check your watch and it’s only been 75 minutes. I suppose if you stop, and really give yourself time to digest where the film winds up going from here, there is a symbolic representation for why. But based on the trajectory for these characters previously set up, it doesn’t work beyond a potential symbolic context. Then again, I sound insanely pretentious writing about this film in that way, so it likely will not be that big of an issue for anyone down the line. 

Oh, Hi! is one of the films at Tribeca this year that is most aware of its target audience, and it succeeds with flying colors at the goals it has for that audience. It’s fun, has a very clever script, two deeply charismatic lead performers, and an unsubtle, but timely message about modern dating. As previously mentioned, we are probably going to be seeing an annoying amount of edits to these characters on TikTok and beyond, as well as plenty of insufferable culture/gender war conversations about who’s really at fault in this film, and that #irisdidnothingwrong or whatever, but at the end of the day, that’s a media literacy issue, and a topic for another day. 

It may sound like I’m being hard on Oh, Hi! more than I initially intended to, so take what I’m saying here with a grain of salt. If enough people go out and support it when it releases in theaters next month, it’s almost guaranteed to be a general crowd pleaser. Overall, I had a great time with this film, and I’m sure you will as well.