Oh, Hi! was another film I had noted on my July Release Radar. It premiered at Sundance back in January and I’ve had my eye on it ever since. Mostly for Molly Gordon who I love in everything she does (and who co-authored the movie with director Sophie Brooks), but also for the premise: a couple, Isaac and Iris, go on their first romantic getaway when Isaac says he’s not ready for a serious relationship and Iris goes to great lengths to convince him otherwise. The movie has been described as: “a romantic comedy gone wrong”, “a ‘situationship’ comedy”, and “a Gen-Z Misery”. Color me interested. Oh, Hi! turned out to be pretty much exactly what I expected and what I wanted from it. Which is a good thing! It definitely has some flaws, but I really liked it for the tone, the performances, and its point of view.

It’s funny to have this movie and Materialists coming out so close together with both movies examining sexual and dating politics in the modern era, albeit in different ways. Oh, Hi! isn’t nearly as cutting and cynical as Materialists is. It’s much more comedic and low-stakes, taking on a different problem in dating these days. When Oh, Hi! starts, Isaac and Iris seem like a great couple. They have great banter, he plays off her sarcasm (my love language), and they seem like they just connect. The house they’re staying at in upstate New York looks so charming and cute I wanted to look it up on AirBnB so I could go. Everything is playing out like a typical romantic comedy. Until Isaac reveals that he’s not looking for a relationship and Iris, naturally, spins out. The boyfriend she thought she’d had for four months thought they were just “hanging out”. I can’t say I’ve been in this exact same situation, but it did really strike a nerve with me based on my experiences with men in their 20s and the experiences of my friends. The portrayal of Isaac felt almost too real to real men in this day and age who say they don’t want a relationship but want all the perks of a relationship without the commitment. 

I was totally on Iris’s side (obviously), but then came a moment in the film when Isaac started to explain himself and said, essentially, “What did I do that was so bad? Treat you well?” For a second I thought, “Does he have a point?” But then I realized I was being gaslit (take a drink for a 2025 relationship buzzword!) into excusing and accepting his behavior. It’s not just “treating someone well”. It’s treating them like a girlfriend but with no set boundaries and without stating your intentions. And then men will be surprised when women expect more. Iasaac can’t pretend he had no idea his actions could be perceived that way. Men love to act oblivious and like they didn’t know what they were doing was wrong, but I hate to say that they’re sometimes smarter than we give them credit for. Dismissing them as dumb actually takes some of the autonomy out of their decisions which is honestly just another way to let them off the hook. Most of the time they know full well what they’re doing which is having their cake and eating it too. It’s always so crazy to me (and I’ve seen it happen) when men find a woman they like and who’s into them and who they have a good time with, but they say they just don’t want a relationship. Then what are you doing? What are you looking for? In the film, Iris and her best friend, Max (Geraldine Viswanathan), discuss the definition of a “soft boy”. We hear so much about the evil of fuckboys (essentially another term for a womanizer), but not enough people are talking about an even bigger rising threat: the soft boy. A “soft boy” is defined as a man who wants all the perks of a relationship (companionship, sex, a reliable plus-one) without the commitment. Full disclosure: I hadn’t heard this term before seeing the movie but it could not be a realer, truer phenomenon.

Something else I related to was the way Isaac could act like he was so into Iris and then say he wasn’t that interested. I think men are better at pretending, at least in my experience. They’ll seem more into you than you are into them and then be the ones to say they’re not feeling it. It’s confusing and disorienting to say the least. It’s no wonder Iris responds to Isaac the way she does. Women aren’t crazy. Men drive women to craziness. Okay, maybe not always to Iris’s level, but I can understand the impulse. As unhinged as she becomes, I did feel a sadness for her. It’s also unfortunately true to life for women to want to force a man to like them or to want to be with them. Especially in Iris’s case where she’s invested so much time into this relationship already and they do work so well together. It’s ten million percent easier said than done, but we, as women, need to learn to walk away the second a guy says he doesn’t want to be with you. Don’t beg or ask why or try to convince them otherwise. Take them at their word, and go find someone who actually does want to be with you. I was worried for a minute that these two might end up back together at the end of this film. I didn’t know if it was going to be some commentary on how men actually love crazy women. And Molly Gordon and Logan Lerman do have such great chemistry, it’s easy to want to root for them to make it work. But it did stay as grounded as a heightened story like this could be, although the ending does try to put a bow on top of things just a little too much for liking considering the darkness of other parts of the story.

Like I said, Molly Gordon was a huge draw for me in seeing this movie and she’s unsurprisingly funny and great in it. She also pulls off some fantastic physical comedy. Logan Lerman was super charming in the beginning (as he should be) and I was into it. This is a new kind of role for him and I’ll be curious to see him in more adult roles in the future. Geraldine Viswanathan​ and John Reynolds as a foil couple to Molly and Logan were also very funny comedic relief. Geraldine as Max is that true ride-or-die friend who will help you bury a body, no questions asked and John as Kenny almost steals every scene he’s in with his earnest humor. With such a small cast in a confined space for much of the movie, they all need to be at the top of their game and I think everyone did a great job.

While I enjoyed the premise of the movie, it did end up feeling like the kind of story where you come up with a fun setup and then can’t really figure out how to get out of it or end it. The longer it goes on, the more it starts to fall apart. And it goes on for longer than it should. But I still had a good time and I got to see it at an early screening event so the crowd was very animated and into it which elevated my experience. I guess 2025 is the summer of condemning modern dating habits. I get it. We’ve all had enough. The New York Times even just recently posted about a new word: Heterofatalism, defined as “the outlook of straight women frustrated with the dating behavior of men. Things are so bad and so common that they had to invent a new word for it! But at least movies like Materialists and Oh, Hi! can help us at least feel like it’s not just us and everyone is going through the same ungodly thing together. Now if only someone could figure out how to solve it…

2025 Count: 50 movies, 35 seasons of television, 3 specials