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Stream It or Skip It: ‘Love Hard’ on Netflix, with Nina Dobrev and Jimmy O. Yang Caught in a Catfishing Christmas Caper

Where to stream:.

Nina Dobrev

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Netflix kicks off its 2021 Here for the Holidays movie season with Love Hard , a romcom with a catfish twist. The film stars Nina Dobrev, Jimmy O. Yang, and Darren Barnet as an incredibly unlikely quasi-sorta-love-triangle-type-trio—okay, you’re going to need to watch Love Hard to get what’s going on. But—is Love Hard worth your time?

LOVE HARD : STREAM IT OR SKIP IT?

The Gist: Nina Dobrev plays Natalie, a columnist who—unfortunately for her—specializes in disastrous dates. But hey—at least she’s able to turn her romantic misfires into cash by penning a bad date column under a pseudonym. But after she matches with a guy who seems totally too good to be true and somehow isn’t ( Never Have I Ever’s Darren Barnet), the future of her column is totally up in the air! With Christmas coming up, Natalie decides to fly from Los Angeles to Lake Placid, New York to surprise her online boyfriend Josh.

And when she arrives, she learns that Josh really was too good to be true. Those hunky photos of a sensitive, outdoors-y millennial? They actually belong to a townie named Tag. And the guy behind the profile, the real Josh, is actually a nerdy, constantly overlooked guy who just wants to make candles (Jimmy O. Yang). Can Josh correct the record and hook Natalie up with the hunky Tag? And can Natalie follow through on her promise to pose as Josh’s girlfriend so he isn’t upstaged by his too perfect older brother? Christmas is about to get confusing!

What Movies Will It Remind You Of?: Movies about people begrudgingly posing as a couple to get haters off their back is a legitimate, some might say the definitive, Christmas movie sub-genre . While You Were Sleeping , Holiday in Handcuffs , Love the Coopers , and last year’s Holidate are all great examples of this kind of film—and Love Hard is up there with the best of them.

Performance Worth Watching: In the often thankless but always vital role of the female lead’s best friend, comedian Heather McMahan absolutely crushes it. Her role in the film lessens as soon as Natalie’s in Lake Placid, but before then? Y’all, everything she does is pure gold.

Memorable Dialogue: Natalie’s pitch to her editor at the hilariously named Soash Media is a great example of how self-aware, earnest, and funny this script is: “What if I write a piece about a girl on the verge of completely giving up on love when she comes to find that the perfect guy might actually exist? So she risks it all: her sanity, her common sense, her ability to ever be on The Bachelor , and it’s worth it because they fall in love just in time for Christmas .”

A Holiday Tradition: Unlike all the Hallmark movies and their Lifetime and VOD cousins, Love Hard takes place in a small town but never once concerns itself with a Christmas hoedown or annual hanging of a wreath or holiday charity drive or some nonsense.

Does the Title Make Any Sense?: And unlike a lot of the generic names you get for holiday romcoms (this year we somehow have films named Making Spirits Bright and Baking Spirits Bright ), Love Hard is actually the only title that makes sense for this film—and it’s kind of a spoiler to reveal why.

Our Take: Can we talk about how hard it has to be to make a good holiday romcom? Seriously—100 of them are cranked out every single year across cable, VOD, and streaming, and they are all more or less the same! The catch is, that’s their appeal. We respond to the formula and if the holidays are about anything, they’re about tradition . So in order to make a good holiday romcom, you have to respect the formula—but you also have to be good. And there are a lot of holiday romcoms that skip the romance and the comedy entirely and are instead TV-G infomercials for deluxe Christmas trees set in a kind of Small Town USA that doesn’t exist and never existed. That gives this genre a bad reputation.

That’s why I’m so happy to report that Love Hard is exactly what a holiday romcom should be in the year 2021. The formula? Respected. The characters? Layered. The jokes? Hilarious. The romance? Nuanced and satisfying. Love Hard shows that you can make one of these movies and do so with intelligence, legit wit, and raucous humor. It has been such a long time since I laughed as hard as I did during one deserves-to-be-iconic scene featuring Nina Dobrev singing Meat Loaf. After watching hundreds of Hallmark movies—and also the Christmas Prince trilogy, Netflix ain’t off the hook!—I forgot that these movies can make you belly laugh.

Love Hard is, of course, held together by a trio of perfect performances from Dobrev, Yang, and Barnet. Dobrev’s Natalie is a romcom protagonist who feels completely of the moment; she’s smart, snarky, and hates “Baby It’s Cold Outside” because she actually listened to the lyrics instead of just cluelessly singing along.

Yang’s Josh goes on a real journey as the film tries to redeem him after his catfishing. It works in part due to how the film, particularly Josh’s chemistry with his family, justifies his low-key misery. Yeah, he’s the sad and lonely guy who wants a girlfriend, but he’s not the sad and lonely guy who feels he’s owed a girlfriend, you know? And balancing out the two is Barnet, Netflix’s It Boy (a title I just bestowed) who plays granola hottie Tag. Between this and Never Have I Ever , Barnet has really cornered the market on playing guys who are defined exclusively by what they look like yet have complex inner lives. No wonder—he’s great at it!

Overall, Love Hard is a fresh and funny romcom that jolts new life into the old formula. It’s going to be hard to watch other romcoms this Christmas season after seeing Love Hard kill it.

Our Call: STREAM IT. It’s hard not to love Love Hard .

Will you stream or skip the Christmas romcom #LoveHard on @netflix ? #SIOSI — Decider (@decider) November 5, 2021

Stream Love Hard on Netflix

Stream It Or Skip It

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Love Hard review – a rom-com that makes you care

In a world of fast-paced modern dating that appears to focus on polyamory relationships and narcissistic conquests, Love Hard reminds audiences that being authentic is way more powerful.

This review of the Netflix film Love Hard does not contain spoilers.

One of the most-needed components of a romantic comedy is giving reasons for the audience to care. It’s not about being original because there are so many films released within this genre that it’s a writer’s nightmare to be fresh. It has to have a cast that is sold and a script that has meaningful messages that resonate on the screen.

Netflix’s Love Hard is part of an overindulged genre of romantic comedies, but it will be remembered for its touching message to the audience — be authentic. The premise follows Natalie (played by Nina Dobrev), an LA writer, who, after meeting her perfect match on a dating app, takes a “leap of faith” and flies 3,000 miles to surprise her romantic endeavor for Christmas. Unfortunately, when she meets her match (Josh Lin – played by comedian Jimmy O. Yang ), she learns she has been catfished.

But the story does not stop there — Josh stole the identity of a man that does not live far (Tag – played by Darren Barnet), so in a beneficial deal, Josh asks Natalie to pretend to be his girlfriend for his loving family, and he’ll help her woo Tag. This provides the perfect dating article for her editor, but like all rom-coms, nothing is simple, and everything is complicated.

While predictable (which is to be expected), Love Hard is way more resonating than sold. Rather than aiming for the dulling fairytale ending, the director (Hernan Jimenez) and writers (Daniel Mackey, Rebecca Ewing) focus on the needs and desires of the characters. Instead of artificially honing in on “girl meets boy” in an unlikely romance, it tackles the shortfalls of the characters and how they can endure and improve themselves.

In a world of fast-paced modern dating that appears to focus on polyamory relationships and narcissistic conquests, Love Hard reminds audiences that being authentic is way more powerful. It reminds audiences that what you think you are looking for is not precisely what you are looking for. We tend to be drawn by fantasies rather than realities, which is the illusion of online dating, but at the crux of it, there’s a yearning for an attractive, compatible match. That’s what the Netflix film attempts to achieve, and it succeeds it well.

The chemistry between Nina Dobrev and Jimmy O. Yang is not meant to be full of sparks and excitement; the wedge between them is served by lies, despite the many relatable things they connect on. The story keeps the connection at bay, allowing the characters to develop; we learn about Natalie’s preferences, Jimmy’s career desires, and Jimmy’s complicated relationship with his brother. This is by no means a bottom-of-the-barrel script.

So, surprisingly, as I end this review, I recommend Love Hard wholeheartedly. You never know what to expect on Netflix, but this is by far my favorite romantic comedy this year, and 2021 is nearly over.

What did you think of the Netflix film Love Hard? Comment below.

Article by Daniel Hart

Daniel is the co-founder of Ready Steady Cut and has served as Editor-in-Chief since 2017. Since then, Dan has been at the top of his game by ensuring that we only produce and upload content of exceptional quality and that we’re up to date with the latest additions to the streaming and entertainment world.

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Love Hard Review

Love isn’t hard to find in this new christmas rom-com..

Love Hard debuts on Netflix Nov. 5.

It’s that time of the year again! Time to get cheesy with romance.

The countdown to Christmas, filled with tropey storylines and predictable endings from Lifetime, Hallmark, and Netflix has arrived. With the success of films like A Christmas Prince and The Princess Switch, Netflix, which has become one of the biggest churners of the genre, has released the first of its many holiday movies slated for this season, Love Hard. And there’s a lot to love in this rom-com, which succeeds in embracing the genre in all its corny glory.

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Directed by Hernán Jiménez and written by Danny Mackey and Rebecca Ewing, Love Hard follows disaster dating columnist Natalie (Nina Dobrev) as she believes she has finally found the man of her dreams through a dating app and decides to fly across the country to surprise him for Christmas. But when she arrives to meet “Josh” (Jimmy O. Yang), she finds out that she’s been catfished. The photo Josh used is actually of his completely unaware friend, Tag (Darren Barnet). Josh proposes a deal to Natalie: if she pretends to be his girlfriend in front of his family for the holidays, he will help her win Tag’s heart. Desperate for her “fairytale happy ending,” she agrees to the ruse. Of course, as Josh and Natalie play pretend boyfriend and girlfriend in front of his adoring parents and egotistical older brother, Owen (Harry Shum Jr.), they inevitably start falling for each other.

Following the predictable rom-com formula of “average joe and the hot girl” and the fake couple trope, Love Hard doesn’t offer much of anything new, but still finds a way to be charming. It’s also refreshing to see Yang, who is often cast as the funny side character, be the romantic lead. Unfortunately, Hollywood has frequently treated Asian men simply as foreigners or stereotypical nerds who never get the girl. Though it’s been nice to see gorgeous leading men like Henry Golding and Barnet himself get more time in the spotlight, it’s left little middle ground for the average Asian guy to find love on screen. That’s part of what makes Love Hard so interesting. Though Josh may not look like the standard love interest, the catfish reveal is not played up for laughs, which is such a relief. Instead, Josh is given some empathy and a chance to show Natalie that he’s still the guy she fell for through their many texts and phone conversations. Despite Josh’s lie, it’s hard not to root for him as Yang plays him with such humor and sincerity.

What's your favorite Netflix Christmas movie?

Dobrev is delightful as the vulnerable yet slightly awkward leading lady. There are some cringe moments where you feel for Natalie, but, given some questionable decisions she makes, she also kinda deserves it. Though the chemistry between Yang and Dobrev is hit or miss at times, the characters themselves are both flawed yet likeable people who do deserve a little Christmas romance. Even with the clichés and cheesy moments -- like the leads singing an updated consensual version of the classic holiday song “Baby It’s Cold Outside” -- it’s endearing to watch Josh attempt to woo Natalie with his creativity.

As for the supporting cast, they do provide some laughs and are given a bit of storyline to work with, but their roles never truly feel complete. Even though Barnet’s Tag is set up to be “the other man” in the story, the script never makes him out to be the bad guy... because, well, he isn’t. Tag is a genuinely nice guy who you feel for in the end, but because he’s not the main love interest, his feelings get brushed aside with no fulfilling conclusion. Shum is hilarious as the overzealous golden child of the family, but consistently plays up the competitive brother charade so much that it’s hard to believe that he is earnest when Josh is struggling. Even Natalie’s boss, Lee (Matty Finochio), who toes a thin line of the stereotypical sassy gay man character, is given a 180-degree turn from annoyingly demanding a story of the fiasco to suddenly becoming her voice of reason. Sure, it doesn’t make sense, but it does fulfill the purpose for plot reasons.

Love Hard is by no means reinventing the wheel, but for those looking for a feel-good Christmas rom-com, it works. It embraces the predictable formula by sprinkling in mentions of classic Christmas movies like Love Actually and Die Hard (yes, there’s a whole thing about that in the film) and including them into their own love story in the end. As cheesy as it is, fans of holiday films know exactly what they’re getting from this genre. This movie isn’t much different, and there is nothing wrong with that.

Although Love Hard follows the typical formulaic plot and clichés, Nina Dobrev and Jimmy O. Yang are charming in their roles as two imperfect people trying to find love. The film checkmarks all the boxes for standard rom-coms. But, instead of trying to move away from it, Love Hard embraces the genre by adding cheesy tropes from other movies into its story and the end result is delightful.

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Love hard review: a delightful & sincere christmas romantic comedy.

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Halloween has barely disappeared from the rear-view mirror and the Christmas movies are quickly gaining momentum. Love Hard has the great honor of being one of the first to hit Netflix this year and usher in a slew of Christmas magic to the streaming service, and what a fantastic start. With dazzling lead performances from Jimmy O. Yang and Nina Dobrev, Love Hard will surely be a Christmas romantic comedy worth revisiting every year.

The story is a modern take on Cyrano de Bergerac, but with some tweaks. Natalie (Dobrev) is a romantic disaster columnist who has been documenting her perilous journey through online dating. One day, she notices a handsome man’s profile and quickly becomes enthralled with him. Feeling like he is her other half, Natalie boards a plane from California to a small town in New York to surprise him. Thinking she will be meeting Josh from the app, played by the age-appropriate Darren Barnet, she is surprised with real-life Josh (played by Yang). In good ole’ romcom fashion, Natalie considers the lie much greater than her connection with Josh. She then promptly sets out to get to know fake Josh( whose real name is Tag), who she knows nothing about. Real Josh, who is now too afraid to come clean to his family, decides to help Natalie woo Tag.

Related: The Best Romantic Comedy Films On Netflix

James Saito, Mikaela Hoover, Rebecca Staab, Harry Shum Jr., and Takayo Fischer in Love Hard

What unfolds is nearly two hours of romantic comedy shenanigans wrapped up in sweet and clever writing that are simultaneously cringe-worthy (because of the situations Natalie gets herself into) and cheerful (there is a happy ending). Love Hard is sweet and clever, but feels like one too many movies rolled into one, even with the typical trappings of the romcom genre. Bits and pieces are knowing nods to other classics, while others are just unfortunate coincidences considering the proliferation of Christmas romantic comedies. However, there is a reason why people come back to this genre time and time again — predictability is comforting. But Love Hard does something that many fail to do, which is having fun with predictability and being entertaining overall.

Dobrev is a very capable actress, so playing the heroine in a romantic comedy seems to have been a breeze. Her character in Love Hard is misguided and requires a rude awakening, and as she bumbles through a series of unfortunate mistakes on the road to love, she gathers clarity and comes out better on the other side. Dobrev’s natural onscreen charm saves Natalie from being entirely unlikeable, but it is in the scenes where Natalie is making all the wrong choices that Dobrev shines. She doesn’t hold back on showing Natalie’s foolish side as well as her sincere side as she undergoes this journey. Natalie is very relatable, but easily unlikeable, and Dobrev carefully moves through the film without ever losing faith that Natalie will come to the right conclusion at the end. Not many actresses can pull that off.

Jimmy O. Yang and Nina Dobrev in Love Hard

While Dobrev is delightful in Love Hard , the film really does belong to Yang, who is quickly becoming a household name. The star in the making is thoroughly entertaining, charming, sweet, and very funny as he plays Josh, one-half of the accidental Cyrano de Bergerac situation. In every way possible, Yang is the perfect romantic comedy leading man. From his sincere efforts to woo Natalie to his humorous quips to his quiet sad moments, Yang effortlessly runs through every facet of his character. It easily makes him the best thing in an already pleasant movie. Even in a moment where Josh has his big speech about how catfishing is bad, it's done with sincerity that skips past cringe and aims straight to the heart.

And there must be a small shoutout to Yang’s Crazy Rich Asians co-star Harry Shum Jr., who comes in hot, utilizing his Glee training to the fullest. He is a perfect foil to Yang’s quiet and demure Josh, which highlights Yang’s gifts and adds to the film’s comedic side. Love Hard could have easily fallen under the pressure of all its references and incidental comparisons to great romantic comedies. However, it turns out to be a very pleasant experience that stands on its own. The ensemble is refreshing and lively, and the film’s message is simple and easy to digest. Just be yourself. With dazzling leads and a fun ensemble, Love Hard hits the mark.

Next: Every Netflix Movie & Series Releasing For Christmas 2021

Love Hard is streaming on Netflix as of November 5, 2021. It is 105 minutes and not rated.

Love Hard is a holiday romantic comedy that follows the hopelessly romantic but eternally single LA journalist Natalie who begins to see the light at the end of the tunnel when she begins a long-distance relationship with a man on the east coast. Deciding to take the jump, Natalie flies to her crush for the holidays, only to learn that she's been catfished by Tag's childhood friend, who is equally unlucky in love, Josh. What follows is a story of two lovelorn fools who may find what they're looking for in each other.

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Love Hard Reviews

Despite being an easy watch, the holiday film does leave one wondering if it takes a step too far in rationalising catfishing, and portraying the phenomenon as harmless.

Full Review | Jun 12, 2024

A light-hearted film with themes of lying makes it an interesting watch that leaves viewers confused about the overall message.

Full Review | Jul 26, 2023

Love Hard doesn’t try to be any of those movies, but the magic and chemistry between the romantic leads are just nowhere to be found.

Full Review | Jul 21, 2023

Love Hard might not be anything close to required viewing, but it still is quite a fun film to start the holiday season.

Full Review | Feb 12, 2022

...a mostly watchable (yet entirely forgettable) romantic comedy...

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/4 | Jan 12, 2022

I was amused watching the writers try to twist this strange premise into a happy ending.

Full Review | Dec 10, 2021

Jiménez is a fine director of actors. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Dec 7, 2021

Instantly forgettable, like a gift you get at an office holiday party.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 24, 2021

Despite the high level of predictability and a plot which doesn't offer anything new, Love Hard is worth watching if you're a casual rom-com fan.

Full Review | Nov 19, 2021

The film is not totally charmless, with Dobrev proving herself an adequate comic actor...The film demonstrates how the over-use of pop references isn't in anybody's interests. [Are] the creators of Die Hard and Love, Actually entitled to royalties[?]

Full Review | Original Score: 2/5 | Nov 19, 2021

Love Hard just might be the lowest of lows for Netflix rom-coms.

Full Review | Nov 14, 2021

Don't look for it to reinvent the Christmas rom com. It plays out the genre's checklist with some unexpected laughs and charm making for a winning start to the 2021 season.

Full Review | Original Score: 9/10 | Nov 14, 2021

I couldn't get over the awkward premise and what it did to the chemistry

Love Hard is no doubt, yet another generic Christmas movie.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Nov 12, 2021

A Hallmark Channel holiday movie on a Netflix budget. The characters are bland, the performances not much better and the writing almost instantly awful

Full Review | Original Score: 1.5/4 | Nov 11, 2021

Love Hard is charming, heartwarming, and just the best way to kick off the holiday rom-com season.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Nov 10, 2021

The film is entertaining, and I laughed a whole lot, but it isn't a good rom-com.

Full Review | Original Score: 6/10 | Nov 10, 2021

What starts out feeling like a rehash of a dozen romcoms you've seen before turns out to be a film that slowly, albeit unevenly, constructs its own charm.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 9, 2021

The film, though frothy and disposable, does have some endearing moments, but with better casting, Love Hard potentially could have risen above its VOD trappings.

Full Review | Nov 8, 2021

It's hard not to love Love Hard.

Full Review | Nov 6, 2021

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DVD & Streaming
Comedy , Romance

Content Caution

In Theaters

Nina Dobrev as Natalie Bauer; Jimmy O. Yang as Josh Lin; Darren Barnet as Tag; James Saito as Bob Lin; Rebecca Staab as Barb Lin; Harry Shum Jr. as Owen Lin; Althea Kaye as Grandma June Lin; Mikaela Hoover as Chelsea Lin; Matty Finochio as Lee; Heather McMahan as Kerry; Fletcher Donovan as Eric

Home Release Date

November 5, 2021
Hernan Jimenez

Distributor

Movie review.

Natalie is unlucky in love.

She’s spent years trying to find the “perfect” guy. And it doesn’t seem like she wants that much: just someone who’s kind, honest and not already married .

Dating apps have not been her friend. Most of the guys she’s found are either really creepy or really rude. Or, worse, they look nothing like their profile pics.

On a positive note, she’s managed to turn her horrible love life into a successful online writing career. She chronicles her bad dates under the pseudonym “Always a Bridesmaid.” And her readers love all the angsty dating drama.

But then Natalie meets Josh.

Josh is everything she wants: sweet, funny, intelligent, single . And as a perk, he’s also very good-looking.

Only problem is, she’s never met him in person, since he lives on the other side of the country. And her editor wants a new story.

So, Natalie takes drastic measures. She’s going to fly across the country to surprise Josh for Christmas. She’ll risk her sanity, her common sense, even her “ability to be on The Bachelor ” to prove that the perfect guy does exist. (And she’ll write all about her love story, so her editor won’t fire her.)

If insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results, then this might be the most sane thing Natalie’s ever done, despite how crazy it seems.

Unfortunately, Natalie’s plans quickly go awry. Because upon meeting Josh, she realizes she’s been catfished .

Josh used pictures of an old buddy on his profile because he never thought Natalie (or any girl, for that matter) would like him otherwise. And he certainly never thought a girl would travel across the country to catch him in his lie.

Natalie is, understandably, furious . It’s not that Josh isn’t as conventionally attractive as Tag (the guy from the photos), it’s that he lied.

But Josh wants to make it up to her. If Natalie will pretend to be his girlfriend until Christmas to appease his family, he’ll help make Tag fall in love with her.

Not quite the love story Natalie was hoping for, but she’ll take it.

Positive Elements

Upon meeting Josh’s family, Natalie immediately understands why he asked her to pretend to be his girlfriend. Though they love Josh and are incredibly kind people, it’s clear that they don’t see Josh as a successful adult. So, seeing him with a sweet and smart girl like Natalie boosts their opinion of him.

Because of this, Natalie really leans into her role as Josh’s girlfriend. She affirms that he has many good qualities and tells him to not let his older brother constantly steal the spotlight. She also encourages his desire to become a candlemaker even though it’s not “manly.” And after the charade is over, she makes him promise to create a real dating profile with pictures of himself instead of Tag.

Josh takes Natalie’s advice and opens up to his dad about starting a candle-making business. His dad is excited, grateful that Josh is finally pursuing his own passion instead of trying to measure up to others’ expectations of what he should be.

Through Josh’s transformation, Natalie realizes that he wasn’t the only person pretending to be someone he’s not. In her own way, Natalie has been so focused on the dishonesty of the guys she was dating that she never stopped to look at her own subtly deceptive ways. While dating Tag, she changes everything about herself to become the girl of his dreams, for example. In the end, she and Josh both apologize for their lies and deceit.

After Josh and Natalie end their charade, Josh’s family offers their sympathies to him—even his older brother, Owen, who had tried to prove that Natalie was a liar. Similarly, Natalie’s boss, Lee, who treated her poorly when he wanted a story, checks to make sure she’s OK.

Elsewhere, a woman says that being bullied during her awkward teenage years taught her about resilience and empathy. When a woman’s face swells up due to an allergic reaction, a man tells her would-be mockers to be respectful of her condition. When Natalie’s fear of heights takes over while rock-climbing, Josh helps soothe her.

Spiritual Elements

Josh comes from a Christian family, and whenever the doorbell rings unexpectedly, his dad shouts, “Is that the Mormons again? Tell them we aren’t converting!”

Josh’s family has a decorative Nativity on their front lawn. Someone wears a “Happy Birthday, Jesus” sweater. Several Christmas carols are about the birth of Christ. Someone else says he doesn’t celebrate Christmas because he believes it’s a scam. We hear that a man fostered a belief in Santa and the Grinch in his grandsons.

A man exclaims, “I am a Christian!” when a woman tries to entice him. Someone says, “speak of the devil.” People talk about “signs” from God.

Natalie says that according to Greek mythology, humans were originally created with four arms, four legs and two faces. But fearing their power, Zeus split them into two parts, dooming them to forever search for their other half. People mention astrological signs.

Sexual Content

Natalie kisses Tag and Josh at different times. We see Natalie in a bath, covered by bubbles. She walks around her home in a sweatshirt and underwear. She and other women wear revealing outfits. Natalie also does a very provocative dance to try to attract Tag. Someone wears a T-shirt imprinted with the image of a pinup girl and the words “I ain’t no Ho Ho Ho.”

While on a date, Natalie nearly kisses a man but is interrupted when his wife and children arrive—whom she didn’t know about. Natalie’s boss is gay. He asks her not to tell HR that he slept with one of their coworkers. He also calls himself her “girlfriend” after they bond.

We see pictures of several shirtless guys on a dating app. Natalie and her friend Kerry objectify a few of them. One man’s profession is “nude yoga instructor.” A man thrusts his hips while Christmas caroling. A guy says he opened a woman’s luggage to look at her underwear.

People talk and joke (often crudely) about having sex, virginity, male genitals and homosexuality. There is a joke about a certain state where cousins can date. Someone says Santa is creepy because he makes people sit on his lap.

While staying with Josh’s family, Natalie makes him sleep on the floor, refusing to share a bed with him even platonically.

Violent Content

Natalie hates the song “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” because of its sexual-assault implications. She refuses to sing or even listen to it.

Natalie smacks Josh with a lawn ornament.

Crude or Profane Language

We hear one use of the f-word and also see it written on a sign preceded by “mother.” Someone calls Natalie and Josh “mofos.” The s-word is used eight times, and we also hear uses of “a–,” “a–hole,” “b–ch,” “d–n,” “d–k” and “h—.” God’s name is abused 25 times (three of which are paired with “d–n” in a song). Christ’s name is abused six times.

Drug and Alcohol Content

Natalie and others drink wine throughout the film. She gets drunk at a bar and often drinks more heavily when she is stressed. She plays a drinking game with Josh. Her friend Kerry shamelessly pours whiskey into her coffee before calling her AA sponsor.

We hear that Josh and one of his friends used to smoke marijuana. Natalie is given a joint of marijuana to pass on to Josh, but she smokes it herself instead. Someone jokes that doing cocaine and running around is cheaper than paying for gas and driving. Someone mentions drug paraphernalia.

Other Negative Elements

Natalie’s boss states that everyone is miserable and adds that people use social media to distract them from their lives and make themselves feel better. He then threatens to fire Natalie if she won’t continue to date bad guys and write stories about them.

When Natalie gets vulnerable about her childhood bullying, a man tactlessly asks if she was a “former chubster.” It’s clear she still has some insecurities since she “monitors” carbs. Josh tells Natalie about the cruel comments kids used to make about his looks. And his brother mocks him for living at home and wearing glasses.

Josh’s brother, Owen, is obnoxious about his need to be the center of attention. His parents clearly favor him, calling him the “Prodigal Son.” There are family photos showing Owen pushing Josh out of frame. He turns the family Christmas caroling into a personal concert. He obsessively Googles Natalie searching for flaws, because he doesn’t like that his family likes her. And whenever the attention veers toward Josh, Owen always tries to one-up him.

During one of these one-up incidents, Josh responds just as immaturely by proposing to Natalie, pressuring her to accept since his whole family is watching. He sadly tells her that his family won’t be crushed when they inevitably “break up” since they’re used to being disappointed by him.

Two people steal several newspapers, putting the delivery boy’s job at risk. Someone says a woman sounds like she has “Millennial Tourette’s.” A man pushes a woman off a climbing wall to scare her (because he knows she’ll be fine since she’s strapped into a harness). A woman says her dad purposely set fires for insurance claims.

Natalie and Josh both learn a valuable lesson about love: It doesn’t have to be perfect , it just has to be honest .

After spending their whole lives being disappointed and heartbroken, they’ve all but given up on love. But they realize the common denominator in all of their failed relationships was themselves . And in order to find love, they needed to stop lying about who they were.

Nobody is truly “perfect.” But that doesn’t mean they can’t be perfect for you. And the only way to know that for sure is to simply and shamelessly be yourself .

It’s a sweet and important message, but unfortunately the rest of Love Hard is plagued by enough foul language and crude talk about sex to make it unwatchable for most.

Emily Tsiao

Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.

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Nina Dobrev, Jimmy O. Yang, and Darren Barnet in Love Hard (2021)

An LA girl, unlucky in love, falls for an East Coast guy on a dating app and decides to surprise him for the holidays, only to discover that she's been catfished. This lighthearted romantic ... Read all An LA girl, unlucky in love, falls for an East Coast guy on a dating app and decides to surprise him for the holidays, only to discover that she's been catfished. This lighthearted romantic comedy chronicles her attempt to reel in love. An LA girl, unlucky in love, falls for an East Coast guy on a dating app and decides to surprise him for the holidays, only to discover that she's been catfished. This lighthearted romantic comedy chronicles her attempt to reel in love.

Hernán Jiménez
Daniel Mackey
Rebecca Ewing
Nina Dobrev
Jimmy O. Yang
Darren Barnet
497 User reviews
59 Critic reviews
42 Metascore
1 win & 1 nomination

Top cast 40

Natalie Bauer

Grandma June Lin

Chelsea Lin

(as Deb Podowski)

Karaoke Operator

Karaoke Singer

All cast & crew
Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

More like this

Did you know

Trivia The film's title is a combination of Josh's favorite Christmas movie Love Actually (2003) and Natalie's favorite Christmas movie Die Hard (1988) . Alan Rickman stars in both.
Goofs Lake Placid does not have an airport with commercial airline service.

Josh Lin : But then the insecurities creep in, and you start with just a slight exaggeration. Still you, just a shinier version. But... you like it. So you tweak it just a little more, until the real you, which was probably pretty great to begin with, is unrecognizable. But here's the thing. You're not just fooling yourself. There's someone else on the other side of that lie falling in love with a version of you that doesn't exist. And that's not fair because the only way it ends for them is disappointment. And the only way it ends for you is heartbreak. If I've ever learnt anything, it's that love doesn't have to be perfect. It just has to be honest.

Connections Features Top Gun (1986)
Soundtracks Slay Bells Performed by Curt Sobel & Gary Schreiner Written by Curt Sobel & Gary Schreiner Courtesy of Palisades Music Productions

User reviews 497

thekarmicnomad
Dec 13, 2021
How long is Love Hard? Powered by Alexa
November 5, 2021 (United States)
United States
Netflix Site
الحبّ الصعب
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Wonderland Sound and Vision
See more company credits at IMDbPro

Technical specs

Runtime 1 hour 44 minutes
Dolby Digital

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Common sense media reviewers.

Some mature themes and language in feel-good romcom.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

People should love you for your personality, not y

Characters misrepresent themselves and fall in lov

The main characters are a mix of Asian Americans a

A woman hits a man with a baby Jesus lawn figure.

Kissing. References to orgasms, sex, "seeing ass,"

"F--k," "s--t," "a--hole," "ass-kicker," "damn," "

Nike, social media platforms and dating apps, Veri

Characters drink regularly, at home, meals, and ba

Positive Messages

People should love you for your personality, not your looks. It's not okay to lie or misrepresent yourself, in person or online.

Positive Role Models

Characters misrepresent themselves and fall in love under false pretenses. A family is supportive of each other, except for some exaggerated sibling rivalry. The family spends a lot of quality time together and are involved in each other's lives and professions.

Diverse Representations

The main characters are a mix of Asian Americans and White, including a blended family. A theme involves people embellishing their online images and women only "swiping" on the handsome guys on dating apps. The film has some gender stereotyping as well as some light teasing about being from Los Angeles and "counting carbs." The main family seems to be Christian, and almost everyone seems to celebrate Christmas, though a joke involves Mormons knocking on the door.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

A woman hits a man with a baby Jesus lawn figure. A woman has a severe allergic reaction where her face swells and she needs an epi-pen before passing out (she's fine later).

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Kissing. References to orgasms, sex, "seeing ass," virginity, d--k pics, underwear, and "screwing" an employee.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

"F--k," "s--t," "a--hole," "ass-kicker," "damn," "hell," "friggin," "bitch," "d--k," "ho," "penis," "screw," "screwed," "mofo," "jerk," "idiot," "Jesus Christ," "God."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

Nike, social media platforms and dating apps, Verizon, Uber, Lyft, Budweiser, TempurPedic, Applebee's, Invisalign, Accutane. Lots of movie references (the title seems to be a combination of the main characters' favorite Christmas movies -- Love Actually and Die Hard ).

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Characters drink regularly, at home, meals, and bars. One spikes a drink before taking a call from her "sponsor." A person smokes a joint to get stoned and relax before a stressful activity.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Love Hard is a holiday romantic comedy about a woman who gets catfished by a man she meets on a dating app. The idea of seeking love online, and the assumptions men and women make about each other based on superficial profiles, is a theme, as is the value of being authentic with oneself and one's friends, online and in person. The main female character writes a column about dating, and the film has references to orgasms, sex, "seeing ass," virginity, d--k pics, underwear, and "screwing" an employee, but beyond some kissing there's no explicit sexual content. The main male character is Asian American and his blended family is depicted as stable and loving (and Christmas-obsessed), despite some sibling rivalry. Characters drink alcohol regularly, at home, meals, and bars. One spikes a drink before taking a call from her "sponsor." A woman smokes a joint to get stoned and relax before a stressful activity. Language includes "f--k," "s--t," "a--hole," "damn," "hell," "friggin," "bitch," "d--k," "ho," "penis," "and "mofo." To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Community Reviews

Parents say (4)
Kids say (7)

Based on 4 parent reviews

Not for kids.

What's the story.

Nathalie ( Nina Dobrev ) is an LA-based writer whose career is built on a column about her dating disasters in LOVE HARD. One day she finally makes a connection on a dating app with a man who is not only drop-dead gorgeous, he's also funny, sweet, and smart. The only problem is he lives thousands of miles away in New York. The two spend hours getting to know each other by phone, and when he jokingly suggests she come visit him in New York, she actually takes him up on it as a surprise. Problem is, when she arrives, all is not as it seems, beginning with her new friend's identity.

Is It Any Good?

What starts out feeling like a rehash of a dozen romcoms you've seen before turns out to be a film that slowly, albeit unevenly, constructs its own charm. Love Hard is a feel-good, Christmas-set romantic comedy with a couple of twists, including Asian American main characters and a plot involving catfishing via dating apps. The main character, Natalie, writes a "disaster date" column. She suggests half of people like reading about disaster dates and the other half prefer storybook romances. This film tries to combine the two. Do you know how it's going to end before it starts? Pretty much. But like any good date, getting there should be the fun part.

There are some funny scenes as well as some laughable one-liners, like an L.A. "6" equaling a small-town, East-Coast "10," a grandma confusing "G word" for "geisha" rather than "girlfriend," or a crack about someone throwing around cool terms sounding like she has "Millennial Tourette's." The fact that they're not politically correct is what gives these jokes their playful punch. Another, more woke riff involves a reworking of "Baby, It's Cold Outside," which one character calls the "sexual assault theme song," to make it less "rape-y." It's neither the romance nor the comedy that carries this film, though (and the fact that it's set during Christmas feels more like a marketing decision than a plot necessity). The sweetness of the characters and the background of Josh's quirky but loving family ultimately make Love Hard a likable watch.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the concept of "catfishing" in Love Hard . Have you heard of this term? In what context? What does it involve?

What are some of the upsides and downsides to online dating apps?

What other film references stood out to you in this movie?

How does this compare to other holiday romcoms that you've seen? Why are so many romantic comedies set during the holidays?

Movie Details

On DVD or streaming : November 5, 2021
Cast : Nina Dobrev , Jimmy O. Yang , Darren Barnet
Director : Hernan Jimenez
Inclusion Information : Female actors, Asian actors, Multiracial actors
Studio : Netflix
Genre : Comedy
Topics : Friendship , Holidays
Run time : 104 minutes
MPAA rating : NR
Last updated : February 17, 2023

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‘Love Hard’ Review: Nina Dobrev and Jimmy O. Yang Are Catfished for Christmas in Dire Netflix Rom-Com

David ehrlich.

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It’s no secret that romantic comedies have a major technology problem. Around the same time multiplexes became too clogged with Marvel sequels to make room for “the next ‘Notting Hill,’ modern love began migrating to the decidedly un-cinematic realm of dating apps. The ubiquity of Tinder and its ilk started to confront rom-coms with some of the same logistical headaches that have been haunting slasher movies for the last two decades (to say nothing of Twitter, which arguably presents a more existential threat to a tradition whose outmoded tropes and petrified gender dynamics often require a degree of disbelief that can’t survive the slaughterhouse of online discourse).

For better or worse, the world is changing faster than Richard Curtis could ever hope to keep up with. And though the digital age might seem perfectly suited for candied stories about people who construct Jenga towers of lies in order to make someone like them, the rare movies that try to Frankenstein together 21st-century rom-coms from the rubble of 20th-century screenplays tend to do so with all the grace of a mad scientist or a massive content farm, because those movies now tend to be second-tier Netflix junk like “The Kissing Booth.” Or Hernán Jiménez’s “Love Hard,” which leverages home-for-the-holidays nostalgia in a flimsy bid to split the difference between “Catfish” and “Cyrano de Bergerac.”

Before we go any further, a quick word about that mishmash of a title. Although it sounds like the name of the best Leslie Nielsen parody never made, “Love Hard” actually refers to the two most controversial works of Jesus-adjacent art since Andres Serrano’s 1987 “Piss Christ,” by which of course I mean “Love, Actually” and “Die Hard.” Both of those films play a crucial role in this one, in so far as the DM-centric romance that develops between hacky L.A. dating columnist Natalie Bauer ( Nina Dobrev ) and her “Flirt Alert” match Josh is sparked by a cutesy debate over the better Christmas movie, which of course leads to an inevitable sidebar about whether “Die Hard” is a Christmas movie at all. It’s scintillating stuff, and the perfect vibe check for a very online rom-com that couldn’t be more social media savvy if it had been written by Sen. Richard “ will you commit to ending Finsta ” Blumenthal himself (actual script credit belongs to Rebecca Ewing and Danny Mackey). It’s a Christmas miracle this movie ends before Natalie and Josh can get into a screaming match about whether that dress is gold or blue.

Indeed, it turns out this star-crossed duo have some more pressing beef with each other. Single, orphaned, and supposedly incapable of finding a decent man in all of Los Angeles despite the fact that she’s a nice and gorgeous 30-year-old whose job requires her to date as many people as possible, Natalie goes all-in on the cute guy she meets online. He looks like a scruffier version of certified hottie Paxton Hall-Yoshida from the Netflix show “Never Have I Ever,” and every time she talks to him via text or on the phone, Natalie’s life melts into a montage. When Natalie decides to fly to Lake Placid and surprise her new crush for Christmas, her editor (Matty Finochio) licks his lips at the potential pageviews that a column about the trip might inspire; that hunger for content is the only semi-realistic aspect of a workplace that so hilariously glamorizes modern journalism it makes “Sex and the City” look like “All the President’s Men.”

Alas, when Natalie shivers her way into upstate New York and knocks on Josh’s door, our girl is aghast to discover that she’s been duped by a dorky introvert (an endearing Jimmy O. Yang ) who lives with his parents, works at his dad’s winter apparel store, and dreams of launching his own scented candle business one day. The only silver lining is that Josh actually knows the Paxton Hall-Yoshida look-alike whose photos he used on his dating profile — it’s his childhood friend Tag (played by Paxton Yall-Yoshida look-alike actor Darren Barnet) who lives down the street — and Josh agrees to set Natalie up with him if she’ll stay with his family for Christmas and pretend to be his girlfriend.

It doesn’t make any sense that Natalie would need extra help catching Tag’s eye, or that she would feel comfortable sleeping in the same room as some random internet boy who’s already betrayed her trust, but rom-com logic is a hell of a drug. At least this movie is consistently committed to the archaic idea that love can be measured by the mere accumulation of shared commonalities and private trivia; Natalie tries to seduce the super-crunchy Tag by pretending that she also loves rock-climbing and Henry David Thoreau, while Josh tries win her over by noticing that she has nine different smiles or whatever (it helps that Yang’s unassuming performance never makes you feel like Josh is cynically working the “nice guy” angle). There’s also a certain transference of sins that levels the very PG playing field between Josh and Natalie, in that she becomes the more active liar once he cons her across the country.

The dynamic between these characters is as simple and timeless as the dramatic question that will define their future together: Is physical attraction more important than personal connection? In the context of “Love Hard,” that question also demands an immediate follow-up: Did I miss a scene where a lethal virus somehow made it so that Josh and Tag are the only single men left on Earth? Natalie may be anxious for someone to kiss under the mistletoe, and it goes without saying that women are unfairly burdened with certain social and biological pressures to settle down before “it’s too late,” but “Love Hard” genuinely seems to think that its heroine has no choice but to spend the rest of her life with one of these two boys. The idea of, say, salvaging a platonic friendship with Josh from this warped situation is unthinkable to a movie that almost seems as allergic to breaking from genre convention as Natalie is to kiwis (a factoid that’s mentioned twice before it results in the most horrifyingly swollen face in any rom-com this side of “Hitch”).

There are moments of palpable sweetness between Josh and Natalie, all of which are owed to the laidback charisma of the actors who play them, and some of which even wrest a morsel of charm from the jaws of cliché (e.g. an improvised duet of “Baby it’s Cold Outside” that sanitizes the song’s rapey undertones). But “Love Hard” is too lazy to support the efforts of its cast, a likable group whose performances are nevertheless as cringeworthy as watching people lean into trust falls with no one around to catch them. Takayo Fischer is game for a good time as Josh’s saucy grandma, but her role is flattened under such ridiculously broad sitcom beats that actual laughs are out of the question. A similar fate befalls James Saito’s affectionate turn as Josh’s dad, though Harry Shum Jr. bears the worst of it for sticking his neck out as Josh’s narcissistic cartoon of an older brother.

These actors, Shum most of all, are major outliers in a movie that isn’t “bad” so much as it makes no legible effort to be good. Like most of Netflix’s seasonal assembly line of yuletide fare, “Love Hard” is both too well-cast for the Hallmark Channel and too half-assed for movie theaters. It’s likewise adrift between rom-com nostalgia, reckoning with the anxieties of dating in the digital age, and simply hitting enough data points to give the algorithm what it wants for Christmas. American rom-coms have become a zombie genre, and brainless streaming content like “Love Hard” — from its tech-driven narrative, nostalgic plotting, and tossed-off production — epitomizes why they refuse to die or be reborn.

“Love Hard” is now streaming on Netflix.

Most Popular

Love Hard Movie Review & Film Summary: The Hardest Christmas Movie to Watch

Love Hard is one of the first Christmas movies of 2021 and it was released on November 5th on Netflix. It is a Rom-Com that runs for 1hr 46 mins. The movie is not worth the time but watchable for some very few scenes. If you are planning to watch it for Darren from Never Have I Ever check out our review of Season 2!

Love Hard Movie Cast

Nina Dobrev as Natalie Bauer
Darren Barnet as Tag
Jimmy O. Yang as Josh Lin
Harry Shum Jr as Owen Lin
James Salto as Bob Lin
Matty Finochio as Lee (Natalie’s Boss)

Love Hard Movie Plot

After a series of bad dates, Natalie finally gets matched with a guy, Josh who is both attractive and sweet but the problem is he lives far away. With Christmas nearby, she decides to go out of her way and meet Josh but it turns out, she got catfished. Angry, she storms off to a bar where she finds the attractive half of the catfish guy. Josh, decides to seek forgiveness and play pretend girlfriend in front of his family by helping her get Tag.

Love Hard Movie Review

It is November, a month before Santa comes bearing gifts! A month before carol singing and a month before the time when listening to Mariah Carrey is ok. It is also the month when Netflix, Hallmark and every other production company starts releasing their most anticipated Christmas movies! November, when love is in the air even before the temperatures start to drop. So why should the 11 th month of 2021 be any different? It is not like we just went through the second wave where we all binged Home Alone or Grinch or Christmas Chronicles or any of the 100s of Christmas movies that have left a mark. That is why the first round of holiday movies have begun!

Netflix started their rotation of movies by bringing holiday movies like The Claus Family, Father Christmas is Back and The Princess Switch to its platform. It also released its first-holiday movie titled Love Hard on November 5 th . Holiday Movies bring families together. They are festive, family-centric and most important of all, appropriate. Good language, PG scenes and sometimes a good moral are important elements of a Christmas classic. And then there is Die Hard. Yippie Ki Yay…you know the rest. There is also Love Actually which promoted the idea of hitting on your recently wed best friend’s wife while also making them lie to him. So what can you say about a movie inspired by these two-holiday classics? You could say that it would be called Love Hard.

Love Hard starring Victoria Justice Nina Dobrev, Jimmy O Yang and Darren Barnet is the first Christmas movie that I watched this year. It had a very promising trailer that finally gave Darren a chance to play a man his age. On another Netflix show, Never Have I Ever, Darren played the role of a 17-year-old jock named Paxton at the age of 28. In this movie, he, fortunately, is a young man in his 20s who belongs to a small town where he gets hit on by every girl. Why not, right? The trailer that ran for 3 mins turned out to be an accurate summary of the movie with leaving next to nothing to be revealed in the movie.

The movie is about a young writer named Natalie who goes on a series of bad dates and maintains a constant column about them. She then meets a dashing man named Josh who is both incredibly attractive as well as a super hilarious person to hang out with. Slowly they get to know each other and what was causal texting became long conversations. One of these conversations was so long that Natalie fell asleep and Josh decided to not hang up and continue after she woke up again.

Being a writer, she is required to go on bad dates and complain about it and when she found Josh she didn’t have anything to complain about. This made her boss furious so he pushed her to travel 3000kms and meet Josh. What follows this journey is catfishing, an overly involved Asian family and Jimmy giving a moving speech on behalf of all the conventionally unattractive people to a disinterested elderly crowd.

There was a lot of potential in this movie because online dating and catfishing is big hurdle in the quest for love in today’s world. Additionally, they use Die Hard and Love Actually in many moments of the movie giving it the necessary connection also but it still falls short in holding onto this interest.

As cliché as the I-am-different-from-other-girls gets, this movie was a breather from that. Natalie loves Die Hard and she is not trying to convince the audience that she is one of the boys. Her failure in climbing the rock wall, or getting high to go speed racing makes us forget for a second that Netflix cast Nina to play a girl who isn’t able to get good dates on an online platform.

The story also starts to drag the audience through instances of adventurous dates or regular emphasising of Josh and Natalie being ugly teenagers. The reasoning of many actions made me think that there wasn’t much thought given to the background of the story because every teenager goes through the dark side of puberty.

The Redeeming Part: Harry Shum Jr.

Also, movies have run their course on the shadow sibling. Being an elder sibling, I think it is pretty harsh to blame one entire life on the success of a more successful sibling. On a more serious note, the relationship between Josh and his elder brother, Owen seemed to be very forced. This dynamic was to no fault of the two actors but more to the story they were given to share.

Owen is a man who thrives in action. He knows what to say, how to act or simply how to keep the people around him engaged and that is why he gets the attention. While Josh, doesn’t get the attention but even when he does, he makes rash decisions or just pushes it away from himself. The entire attention sub-plot of the movie felt more like Owen helping his brother out by not putting him in awkward situations because of which their rivalry was not understandable at all.

On top of that, Harry was one of the few reasons the movie is bearable. He brought delightful energy to the movie and made you miss him in the scenes where he wasn’t there. Towards the end, he was hit on by Natalie’s boss, which made the Magnus fan in me, just squeal in delight because even though he is a straight man in the movie, the gaydar never misses.

Love Hard Film: Final Thoughts

By the end, I was trying to identify the few essentials of this Christmas movie. It was PG for sure, but this Rom-Com had barely any chemistry between the actors, it had a family but it wasn’t family-centric and the writing was average at best. On top of that, Love Hard promised us Love Actually and Die Hard but other than one or two references, the movie had no epic romance or any fast-paced action scenes. Not that I expected fight scenes but I definitely wanted more than Nina saying Yippie Ki Yay.

Overall, I would not recommend this movie to anyone seeking a holiday classic but because of Harry Shum Jr, Jimmy Young talking passionately about candles and Takayo Fischer (Josh’s Grandmother) I will also not violently stop someone from viewing it.

The Movie Culture Synopsis

Love Hard will make you wonder why you wasted your time and ponder over how this awaited project turned out like this. Harry and Jimmy did great jobs personally and the Takayo Fischer deserved more screen time.

Love Hard is streaming on Netflix .

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Netflix's Love Hard Is Perfect, If Cheesy Rom-Coms Are Your Thing

Cheesy rom-com season is upon us — and honestly, the Hallmark ones just don't cut it for me. When I saw Netflix's Love Hard trailer , I was excited because I love Nina Dobrev but super skeptical about the catfish angle. The trailer also gives away way too much of the plot. I mean, it's almost three minutes long, which is arguably a short film. In the trailer, you learn that Emily (Dobrev) falls in love with this guy named Josh ( Jimmy O. Yang ), whom she meets on a dating app. He also lives across the country. When Emily decides to fly from Los Angeles to Lake Placid, New York, she discovers that Josh isn't actually the man in the profile. He's been using photos of a guy named Tag ( Darren Barnet )!

"It doesn't have to start real to be real," Netflix writes in the trailer, essentially giving the story away. Where's the mystery? Nonetheless, I watched the entire movie, and like any good rom-com, I was rooting for and against Emily. It's also worth noting that Emily is behind a dating column that relies on her having a bad time to help make her readers feel better about their lives. I also couldn't decide who the real villain was — Emily, Tag, and the real Josh are equally likable and unlikeable. That's part of the charm, I guess?

Overall, I enjoyed watching Love Hard , and if a friend asked to watch it one snowy afternoon over hot chocolate, I could watch it again. For now, you can check out the movie on Netflix , along with my unfiltered thoughts that I had throughout the film.

A Christmas movie in California? Interesting.
This Greek mythology thing makes sense.
Not Flirt Alert instead of Tinder.
Why do people lie about their appearance on dating apps? The truth comes out in person!
Yes, Zeus was notoriously an asshole.
Having a date in the home you share with your wife and kids is so bold and so awful.
A Libra . . .
As a journalist, I eat fictional newsroom storylines up! The Devil Wears Prada ? I mean c'mon. The Bold Type , anyone?
The office friend with the brutal truth.

I don't date outside my borough, much less outside of my neighborhood, so five miles seems like a lot to me. But then again, LA folks drive.
3,000 miles?!
The Green Latifah juice — was it necessary?
"Disaster for you is a hit for me." You do have to hit those traffic goals.
2, 870 miles? No.
Die Hard is not a Christmas movie and this Love, Actually slander is rude.
I don't know why, but Josh's voice sounds fake.
Please don't get into a phone relationship.
Okay, these dick pic jokes are funny.
Oh, they're in deep.
Top Gun is homoerotic.
This reading is sweet.
Get on the plane.
The shake weights . . .
"The real journalists." I'm fuming. Every editorial writer ever has dealt with this. You're a real journalist.
Lost luggage, classic.
I'm from upstate New York and can confirm that Ubers are few and far between.

How did she find out his address?
This family is wonderful and so cute.
Oh no. Josh!!!
That Photoshop job wasn't complicated.
Why hello real/fake Josh!
LA six and Lake Placid 10 oh my god. It makes sense, though.
I've had an allergic reaction that looks just like this. I didn't pass out, though — just a puffy and itchy face.
Love Don't Cost a Thing , Can't Buy Me Love , A Walk to Remember — the fake couple trope is overrated, but I'll always watch.
Go 'head, girl.

Josh knows way too much about Tag.
Picking up interests based on a guy is ill-advised.
When you lie on your résumé.
There are too many candle brands out there.
Ugh, I hate Owen.
"He's a Pisces," LOL. Love all the zodiac slander . . . unless you come for a Virgo.
Learning hobbies for men isn't a requirement FYI. Also, rock climbing is hard!
Josh to the rescue, awww!
She's gonna end up falling for Josh. Aside from him being a lying catfish, I'm fine with this.

I've never seen caroling in real life. It's just a movie thing, correct?
"Baby, It's Cold Outside" is gross. Love this rendition. John Legend and Kelly Clarkson's version wasn't it.
The profile is giving serial killer vibes.
No vegetarian is going to casually start eating meat for someone.
Owen is actually obsessed with Josh.

This girl and Die Hard .
That kiss was incredibly awkward.
Oh my God, poor Hank.
Good advice, Josh.
This bridal shower is so chaotic.
And the truth comes out.
"So much for my happy ending!" — Avril Lavigne.
The editor is loving this.
All these candles lit in an empty home are such a fire hazard.
Netflix should sell these candles for promo or do a pop-up. I'm curious to smell them.
Lee's story arch is oddly heartwarming.
The catchy opening sentence is always the hardest.
Why isn't she using an alias for these guys? No need to embarrass everyone, girl.

Emily, get off Flirt Alert.
And of course, the first profile is Josh.
Cheesy, but I'm emotional.
The Yippee-ki-yay again.
This is a kiss!
I'm ready for the second movie. I need it. Or a spin-off with grandma.
Romantic Comedies
Movie Reviews
Nina Dobrev
Unfiltered Reviews
Darren Barnet
Jimmy O. Yang

MOVIE REVIEW: “LOVE HARD” BREAKING THROUGH ORIENTALIST VIEW

CADY ABE WRITES — In preparation of the Holiday season, Netflix released the new Christmas movie, Love Hard, on November 5th, 2021. The movie premiered with an all-star cast, most notably comedian Jimmy Yang and The Vampire Diaries’ Nina Dobrev as the two romantic leads. Amid all the large steps forward in Asian representation in recent years with Crazy Rich Asians , Parasite , Minari , Shang-Chi , and Eternals , Hollywood is beginning to break the bamboo ceiling of Orientalist views in mainstream media.

At first glance, the movie almost seems like a step back in Asian representation in Hollywood. From the trailer, Jimmy Yang’s character, Josh Lin, is depicted as an “unattractive” male, further pushing the Orientalist view of desexualizing and feminizing Asian men. The premise of the movie centers around Josh “ catfishing ” Nina Dobrev’s character, Natalie, by using the picture of a conventionally attractive male on a dating app. However, Love Hard pleasantly subverted my original negative expectations. The movie displays a diversity of Asian characters with different personalities, hobbies, and physical attractiveness, showing that Asian people and Asian roles are real people not tied down to stereotypes.

In an interview with POPSUGAR , Jimmy Yang disclosed that, “This role wasn’t written to be a particular ethnicity.” Love Hard clearly subscribes to that notion as the movie did not emphasize any Asian stereotypes and in fact depicted the Lin family in a very normalized and comforting way. Josh, who is shown to be an aspiring candle maker, displays a kind heart, and many soft and loveable attributes of a desirable and handsome partner. On the other hand, Josh’s older brother, played by Glee star, Harry Shum Jr, is known for his “sexiness,” conventional physical attractiveness, athleticism, and manliness, further breaking down the stigma that Asian men are not attractive and feminine.

Love Hard provides a breadth of diversity of characters, and shows that people, no matter their interests or appearance, are deserving of love. In addition, Josh Lin’s ethnicity is not used as the butt of a joke, or even the reason he did not get many dating app matches. As a portion of the movie, Natalie compliments Josh’s eyes and physical appearance, and teases him for his almost serial killer looking profile as he poses with an axe and rope. The man that Josh uses to “catfish” Natalie is played by Darren Barnet, who is a mixed White and Asian American actor known for his attractive body and face. The movie never makes note of Jimmy Yang’s ethnicity in a negative light, and perhaps critics who see Josh’s difficulty dating as a product of his race harbors internalized orientalism. The movie provides a new refreshing view of Jimmy Yang as he plays a character he has not portrayed in the past.

Overall, Love Hard is the classic love story we crave in this holiday season, filled with modern people realizing that love is about true connections and not surface-level attractions.

Cady Abe is a new AMI book reviewer and a senior Asian Pacific Studies major at Loyola Marymount University. She is deeply interested in Asian and Asian American culture and plans to attend law school. In her free time, she enjoys playing taiko, drawing, reading, and finding good new food places to eat.

* Edited by book review editor-in-chief, Ella Kelleher .

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Love Hard Parent Guide

Although it's predictable, this movie handles the issue of honesty with insight and has some appealing characters..

Netflix: Natalie's fallen in love with a guy she met on a dating app. Deciding to surprise him, she flies out to meet him over the Christmas holidays. But she's the one who gets the biggest surprise....

Release date November 5, 2021

Run Time: 104 minutes

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The guide to our grades, parent movie review by kirsten hawkes.

Natalie has a terrible love life. It’s so bad that she’s turned her dating disasters into a career, retelling her stories in the column “Always a Bridesmaid”. Then, while swiping her way through a dating app, her luck changes. She matches with Josh, a handsome, sensitive guy in New York, and they proceed to text and call, sharing their memories and interests and building a heartfelt relationship. Determined to be spontaneous for once (and to get a killer article about a good romantic relationship) the California girl hopes on a plane to surprise Josh for Christmas.

There are surprises aplenty when Natalie turns up at the Lin family home, and not just for Josh. Natalie is horrified to learn that she’s been catfished. Josh, who is a stereotypical nerd with big glasses, has been hiding behind photos of his old friend, Tag, a hunky outdoorsman. When Natalie storms out of the house, Josh proposes a deal: if she pretends to be his girlfriend until Christmas, he will help her meet Tag. In fact, since he’s known Tag since childhood, he’ll help coach Natalie in rock climbing and the works of Thoreau so she can be irresistible to the hot, humorless rock climber. Natalie agrees, and the charade begins…

As for whether teens should watch the movie, that will depend on parental movie standards. There is no sex and little violence (although Natalie hits Josh with the baby Jesus from the front yard nativity, which might upset religious viewers). Of the movie’s completely unnecessary 53 swear words, 33 are terms of deity. The real issue here is alcohol, which is consumed in almost every social situation. There’s also a scene where Natalie is stoned – she used pot off screen to relax enough to get on to a bobsled with Tag.

As for overall quality, Love Hard sits on the higher end of the rom-com scale. Now, that’s not a high bar – the genre is notorious for predictable plots, low production values, and hammy acting. Thankfully, these production values are good and there are plenty of jokes that actually land. Jimmy Yang brings an endearing vulnerability to his portrayal of Josh and Harry Shum Jr happily chews the scenery in his role as Josh’s narcissistic, attention-seeking older brother. (In a bonus for minority representation, most of the characters in the film are matter-of-factly Asian or biracial.) This movie isn’t earth-shattering but it’s a tribute to families and a reminder that love is more than skin deep.

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Kirsten hawkes, watch the trailer for love hard.

Love Hard Rating & Content Info

Why is Love Hard rated TV-14? Love Hard is rated TV-14 by the MPAA for substances, language

Violence: A woman hits a man with a baby Jesus from an outdoor nativity set. Someone goes into anaphylactic shock. A man mentions having shot a deer. Sexual Content: There’s brief mention of a date rape drug. Men briefly discuss genital size. There’s brief mention of sexual climax. A man and woman kiss. Profanity: There are over 50 swear words in the movie including 33 terms of deity, seven scatological curses, two sexual expletives, and three minor curse words. There are over a dozen crude anatomical terms, including words describing male genitalia. A crude term for women is also used. Alcohol / Drug Use: A couple toast with wine glasses. Someone jokes about using cocaine. A minor character reminisces about past drug use. A character gives someone else a marijuana cigarette. A woman gets drunk in a bar. Adults imbibe alcohol in a bar. An adult pours alcohol into her coffee. It is implied that a main character smokes marijuana to get relaxed. Adults drink wine with meals.

Page last updated February 24, 2022

Love Hard Parents' Guide

Do you think there are degrees of dishonesty in Natalie’s and Josh’s behavior? Does either seem better or worse to you? What does Natalie learn about her own dishonesty? What are the consequences?

Why does Josh use Tag’s photos online? What changes so he is willing to post his own photos?

Love Hard REVIEW – All Comedy, No Romance

And so begins the Netflix holiday rom-com season.

You know that MTV show Catfish, hosted by Nev Schulman? Well, Love Hard is like that show, except the victim and the perpetrator find love with each other. Catfishing is deceptive and uncomfortable, so Netflix decided it would be the perfect premise for a holiday rom-com. I understand what they were trying to go for, but just like Sierra Burgess Is a Loser , whatever love that blossoms just doesn’t feel right .

Nina Dobrev’s Natalie Bauer has been unlucky in love. She’s been on the hunt for the man of her dreams for a while now, but can’t seem to escape the disaster date arena. So her quirky best friend (there’s always one in rom-coms) suggests she expand her search pool. This is how she meets Josh Lin (Jimmy O. Yang) – he’s handsome, rugged, not to mention they hit it off like a house on fire. The problem? He’s all the way in Lake Placid, while she’s in LA. But she’s in love, and with the encouragement of aforementioned quirky best friend, she decides to take a leap of faith and flies all the way to the East Coast to be with him for the holidays.

To her utter shock, Josh looks nothing like the pictures he posted of himself on the app. Red with anger, Natalie is about to take off until Josh promises to help hook her up with Tag (Darren Barnet), the man whose likeness he used – she just needs to continue to pretend to be his girlfriend in front of his family. Natalie hesitates, but after pondering the wreck that is her love life, she decides to take him up on his offer.

Like I said, the movie never overcomes the ickiness of the whole catfish situation. While Natalie does throw this in Josh’s face a couple of times, she is for the most part quite understanding. Unfortunately, I could see what the movie was planning from a mile away, and I was hoping ardently that this wouldn’t be the case.

Dobrev and Yang don’t have chemistry together, and I think the film would have worked better if it sold us a friendship angle rather than romance. The movie is actually pretty funny – Yang’s quick wit is apparent, he is a comedian after all, and Dobrev commits wholeheartedly to all the embarrassing situations the movie puts her in. The second-hand embarrassment I got from watching her was almost too much at times. Harry Shum Jr’s performance as Josh’s annoying brother Owen is also on point, and as someone who watched Glee, it was amazingly hilarious to watch him strut his stuff during the musical performances.

There isn’t chemistry between Dobrev and Barnet either, and for a film that markets itself as a rom-com, it just doesn’t do justice to one side of the equation. Barnet also looks completely over it, and his performance was pretty weak and phoned in. Despite the fact that Natalie is the main character, we never learn much about her. Josh is actually given more character development, while we barely know anything about Natalie besides her desire for love. In some ways, the film does seem like a copy of While You Were Sleeping, since Natalie, much like Sandra Bullock’s Lucy, is very much alone during the holidays. In contrast, Josh’s family is more rambunctious and warm. The huge difference is that While You Were Sleeping is just insanely more competent – the relationships feel real, and Lucy actually becomes close to them in an authentic way.

In this film, Natalie doesn’t really bond with anyone but Josh, and like I said, the burgeoning romance between them is not believable. The film is entertaining, and I laughed a whole lot, but it isn’t a good rom-com.

READ NEXT: 10 Best Rom-Com Movies You Should Watch

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"Good Messages Marred by Crude Behavior and Profane Language"

	None	Light	Moderate	Heavy
Language
Violence
Sex
Nudity

What You Need To Know:

Miscellaneous Immorality: Lying, some animosity between brothers, woman says “God hates her,” and a character makes a joking comment about cousins getting married, even though they aren’t cousins, and they aren’t getting married.

More Detail:

LOVE HARD is a romantic comedy on Netflix about a female writer fooled by a short Asian guy on an online dating app who promises to set her up with the handsome guy in the photo he used on his profile. Set during Christmas, LOVE HARD is funny and engaging, with good comic performances and positive pro-family messages and positive Christian references, but it’s marred by an excessive combination of foul language, crude references, brief substance abuse, and other negative content.

Natalie is a Los Angeles journalist who’s made a living out of turning her dating experiences into stories for her readers. These days, though, she’s just looking to find her perfect match.

One day, while on an online dating app, Natalie matches with a guy, Josh, who she thinks has long-term potential. So, she decides to fly to visit him in his home of Lake Placid, NY for Christmas. The only problem is, Josh isn’t who he said he was online. The real Josh is a short Asian man.

After confronting Josh away from his loving family, Natalie goes to a local bar to drown her sorrows until she sees the real-life guy whose photo Josh used to catfish her with the dating app. Natalie takes a few shots of alcohol to impress this new guy, whose name is Tag, but she has an allergic reaction to the kiwi in the mix of her drink. Josh comes to the bar and winds up taking Natalie to a local vet who helps her swelling go down.

Natalie is still furious with Josh, but the pair strike up a deal where Josh will help Natalie date Tag, but only if she continues to pretend to be his girlfriend until they can stage a breakup that will convince his family they’re separating.

Things aren’t smooth sailing for them, however. Josh’s more accomplished older brother, Owen, comes to town and exacerbates old insecurities that Josh has. Also, Natalie and Josh tell Tag that Natalie is Josh’s cousin. This means they must be very careful about not mixing up the lies they’ve told Tag with the lies they’ve told Josh’s family.

Will everything pan out the way Natalie and Josh want it?

LOVE HARD has great pacing. The action moves along at a quick, easy gallop. Nina Dobrev and Jimmy O. Yang as Natalie and Josh have great comic timing and showcase the hearts of their characters in the more dramatic scenes. The movie does a good job of increasing the stakes. So, although many seasoned moviegoers might guess the ending, it won’t deter them from enjoying the story and the movie’s sweeter, more dramatic moments.

LOVE HARD has a mixed worldview with Romantic, moral elements, and other worldview content. The plot centers on one’s desire to have a significant other. Along the way, characters learn the value of liking someone for who they are and coming together as a family. LOVE HARD stresses being honest with the people you love and apologizing for wrongdoing, which ultimately wins out in the movie. Since the movie’s set during Christmas, it has some strong, overt Christian elements and even some pro-capitalist sentiments. However, the movie’s positive messages are marred by lots of foul language, including some strong profanities, crude references to sex, and some substance abuse. Also, there’s some politically correct content, substance abuse and some homosexual references.

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Discussion - Love Hard (2021)

Director: Hernan Jimenez

Writers: Daniel Mackey

Rebecca Ewing

Nina Dobrev as Natalie Bauer

Jimmy O. Yang as Josh Lin

Darren Barnet as Tag

Harry Shum Jr. as Owen Lin

James Saito as Bob Lin

Mikaela Hoover as Chelsea

Heather McMahan as Kerry

Lochlyn Munro as Rex

Rebecca Staab as Barb Lin

Takayo Fischer as June Lin

-- Rotten Tomatoes: 50%

Metacritic: 55

VOD: Netflix

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It Ends With Us Review: A Fine & Nuanced Depiction of Abuse

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The following contains spoilers for It Ends With Us, hitting theaters August 9th.

In 2016, novelist Colleen Hoover published " It Ends With Us, " a romance story about the destructive cycle of abusive relationships. In 2021, her book reached cult status, garnering a massive following on social media. A tragic tale of lost love, tough choices and redemption, Hoover's novel seemed tailor-made for the big screen . It comes as no surprise that Sony Pictures also realized this and brought it to life in theaters in 2024. Starring Blake Lively, Brandon Sklenar, Alex Neustaedter, Isabela Ferrer, Jenny Slate and Justin Baldoni, the live-action adaptation of It Ends With Us deals with some very tough material. For the most part, it succeeds.

Lily Bloom (Blake Lively) didn't have a happy childhood. Her father abused her mother, and her mother covered it up. The only bright spot was her friendship with Atlas Corrigan (Brandon Sklenar), an abused boy squatting in the house next door. 20 years later, Lily moves to Boston to open a flower shop. Here, she meets the charismatic neurosurgeon Ryle Kinkaid (Justin Baldoni), Ryle's outgoing and fun-loving sister Allysa (Jenny Slate), and her husband, Marshall (Hasan Minhaj). Lily and Ryle begin a relationship, but there is trouble in paradise. Ryle's anger surfaces in threatening ways, and things become more complicated when Atlas re-enters the picture. As Ryle becomes more erratic and possessive, Lily must call into question the nature of their relationship – and that of her parents' – before it's too late.

It Ends With Us Explores the Tragic Side of Romantic Drama

The movie handles its dark and complicated subject with subtlety and dignity.

It Ends With Us' (Novel) Critical Reception
Amazon	Barnes & Noble	Goodreads
4.7/5	4.6/5	4.15

Split Images of Titanic, Purple Rose of Cairo, and Star is Born

30 Romance Movies That Will Break Fans' Hearts

From The Age of Innocence to Titanic, there's no shortage of upsetting and heartbreaking romance movies out there.

It's easy for many viewers to write off It Ends With Us based on its premise. In a touchy and sensationalist cultural landscape, a romantic drama centered around an abusive relationship is a rather hard sell. Add to this the rather unfair stigma around romantic films, and things seem bleak on the surface. It Ends With Us does have some classic romance tropes. To wit, it has two love interests – specifically a mysterious and complex "Bad Boy" and a wholesome childhood friend – a glamorous urban setting, a quirky cast of friends, and lots of steamy intimacy. However, most of these tropes are played seriously, and even darkly. There is nothing romantic about the poignant and sometimes horrifying human drama that unfolds on screen.

Domestic violence and abuse aren't easy topics. In recent years, there has been a trend towards humanizing abusers, giving them tragic backstories to explain their unkind actions, tying their cruel behaviors to traumatic incidents, cultural expectations, and so on. Some works dealt with this approach better than others. Even then, those that manage to strike a chord upon first release are later scrutinized more harshly down the road. It Ends With Us continues this trend, via the relationship between Lily and her husband, Ryle. However, this movie lends a degree of tact and dignity to its thorny premise. Depictions of domestic violence aren't sensationalized or graphic, yet still read as grounded and shocking. The character interactions feel real and at times are even believably awkward. And like Lily, the audience is similarly swept into a world where desperate rationalization and misplaced sympathy overrule logic – and the consequences are tragic.

It Ends With Us is mostly faithful to Hoover's vision, though some changes were made. Whereas the protagonists were in their 20s and just out of college in the original novel, the movie ages them up by a good ten years. Now, all the major players into their 30s. This was the movie's best and most effective change, for both the story's impact and for the sake of realism. Another important change is the revelation of Ryle's past. This heartbreaking reason for his explosive anger and resentment is what leads to him committing unspeakable acts towards Lily. It is revealed in one of the film's most devastating moments. The scene in question is led magnificently by Slate's performance as Allysa. Her sentiment of forgiving but not forgetting her brother's cruelty sums up It Ends With Us and its interpretation of domestic violence. It explains but doesn't excuse characters' actions. Redemption is possible in It Ends With Us, but not all bridges can be rebuilt. It's a tough but necessary message, making for an especially moving ending.

It Ends With Us Tows a Fine Line In Depicting Abuse

The movie emphasizes redemption, but doesn't skimp on consequences or accountability.

The Stars' Highest-Rated Role, According to Rotten Tomatoes
Actor	Character	Title	Rotten Tomatoes Score
Blake Lively	Krista Coughlin	(Movie)
Justin Baldoni	Rafael Solano	(Series)
Brandon Sklenar	Loner (Guest Star)	(Series)

RETRO REVIEW: 500 Days of Summer is More Real Than Romantic

500 Days of Summer is not a love story, even if its whimsical aesthetic and electric performances fooled everyone into thinking that it was.

It's hard not to root for or relate to Lily. Played by Gossip Girl alum Blake Lively, Lily is especially likable, for all her faults. Lively's performance is a big part of the character's appeal. Her father, Andrew, a well-respected man, abused her mother, Jenny, and possibly herself, along with others. All the while, Jenny covered up the abuse. This is a story that, tragically, many people know all too well. Lily's resentment towards her mother is justifiable, and the consequences of raising a child in a dangerous environment play out all too clearly in this film. Nobody can fault her for her anger towards her father after his death – especially after witnessing his cruelty on screen.

It's also hard not to sympathize with her once she unwittingly pays the price for her parents' poor relationship by inadvertently entering a similar relationship years later, ignoring red flags and her own intuition for the sake of misguided love. Lively balances emotional vulnerability with humor, anger, compassion and even defiance, making her a great audience surrogate without losing her own personality. Audiences are in on this troubled journey with Lily. This makes what she goes through and the hard decisions she makes all the more effective.

Lily and Atlas' story – which is as much about friendship as it is about romance – is played by two pairs of actors. Isabela Ferrer and Alex Neustaedter in the past, and Lively and Sklenar in the present. Atlas, Lily's first love, is an ex-marine turned chef. More importantly, he's the film's moral center. So lovable and moral is Atlas that any other cast member who even tries to hurt or antagonize him immediately loses audience trust or respect. Although the romantically victorious childhood friend is an overused trope, It Ends With Us makes remarkable use of it. The flashbacks carried by Ferrer and Neustaedter are genuinely adorable, with both young actors channeling their respective adult counterparts with eerie accuracy. Lively's and Sklenar's chemistry as the adult Lily and Atlas is just as easy and natural, even if their romance is a slow burn , at least until the last minute .

Their immediate rapport and ease around each other is a stark contrast to the compelling, if off-kilter, courtship Ryle presents. Both Sklenar and Neustaedter endear audiences with their thoroughly unpretentious performances. Atlas is a grounded take on masculinity; a former marine who survived abuse and violence, but who emerges as a supportive and earthy person who is as much Lily's equal as he is her champion. This portrayal is extremely refreshing in an era so fixated on championing toxic masculinity or lionizing its many faults. It's nice to see a conventionally masculine love interest be so kind and down-to-earth for a change.

On the other hand, director Justin Baldoni doubled as Ryle, Lily's fiancé. His portrayal as a troubled abuser is key to this film's nuanced approach. Even though the red flags appear in his first appearance, audiences may find themselves falling in love with Ryle just as Lily does. He deconstructs the idea of female romantic protagonists thinking that "He's bad, but I can fix him" whenever they fall for a stereotypical Bad Boy. This trope is worryingly popular in romance novels, both then and now. It's worth noting that Ryle has redeeming qualities and a tragic backstory; he is humanized enough so that audiences can understand him. However, It Ends With Us never romanticizes his jealousy, possessiveness or misplaced rage in the film's most shocking sequences.

Although the possibility of redemption is raised, Ryle has to face the consequences, and the ending leaves things open. Hoover and co-writer Christy Hall, alongside director Baldoni, clearly respected the audience's intelligence by updating these elements. This allowed viewers to come to their own conclusions on a topic that has no easy answers, and on a character who raises difficult questions on said topic. The movie has some missteps, and some savvier viewers might instantly recognize the warning signs just as Atlas did in-universe. However, the end results are still satisfying enough for a self-contained, 90-minute film, in contrast to the open-ended ambiguity of real life.

It Ends With Us Tells Its Story of Flawed Love Through Its Visuals

The movie's art direction pits the natural against the urban.

Top 5 Works Directed by Justin Baldoni, According to IMDb
Title	IMDb Score
(Short)	9.2/10
(Series; 8 Episodes)	8.7/10
(Short)	8.1/10
(Series; 1 Episode)	7.9/10
(Movie)	7.5/10

Ella from Ella Enchanted, Westley and Buttercup from The Princess Bride and Jareth from The Labyrinth

15 High Fantasy Romance Movies That Combine Love with Adventure

Although many films employ tropes from the fantasy and romance genres, only a few can satisfyingly combine them in a single story.

The contrast between healthy and dysfunctional love, the compatible and incompatible, is conveyed through the movie's art direction, costumes and set designs. Set in New England, It Ends With Us contrasts the natural, warm and earthy with the unnatural, sterile and man-made in both of its major environments and in Lily's two loves. Lily herself comes from a more natural, grounded place. As a teenager, she has a close bond with plant life, more at ease in gardens and amongst flowers than inside the overly prim manor where her father rules and her mother submits. As an adult, she is a florist who transforms a derelict shop in Boston's more artistic and walkable districts into an inviting place of earth tones, soft textures, warm colors and flowers filled with meaning. At her most comfortable, she dons breezy, crinkled textiles full of prints and patterns, fabrics full of snags and wrinkles, hair loose and makeup barely noticeable. Lily Bloom, as her full name suggests, is a character who thrives when she is closer to Earth.

Lily is mature take on the "flower child" is the perfect counter to Ryle's world: a crisp, clean, geometric but cold and metallic realm of hospitals, penthouse suites and cocktail parties. When he's not in the sterile scrubs of a neurosurgeon, he's in the perfectly pressed and coiffed outfit that connotates wealth, sexiness, power, and a dark and tumultuous emotional storm roiling underneath. Ryle, Allysa and her husband Marshall (played to endearing comic relief by Hasan Minhaj) live in an ultra-modern, developed and glamorous world of recognizable luxury labels, studs, jewels, martini glasses and sophistication.

Lily does make attempts to fit into this world, styling her clothes, hair and makeup accordingly in her courtship of Ryle. Some of her attempts are easier than others, but the message is clear: this isn't Lily's world, she doesn't belong there, especially once she and Ryle are a couple. She's soon sequestered in his dark and oppressive apartment, devoid of anything natural. Ryle himself also doesn't fit in Lily's world of natural fibers and plants, standing out like a sore thumb. He doesn't belong, and this is played as much for horror as it is for tragedy. Opposites may attract, but in the end they are not compatible.

In contrast, Atlas is very much part of Lily's little microcosm. From his appearances as a homeless teen finding solace in food and gardening to the main body of the film where he's shown as a fully-grown man in every sense of the word, Atlas is as tied to nature as Lily. His restaurant, Root, is a beautiful place of old antiques, hanging vines, wood tables and organic ingredients inspired by his gardening days with Lily. He's comparatively more unkempt, with facial hair softening his features, and a casual wardrobe of cottons, leather and suedes in earth tones. Even his apartment in urban Boston looks like a cabin, filled with earthen textures, trinkets and decor, a much more lived-in and welcoming haven that Lily ends up feeling – and looking – at ease in. Right from the beginning, It Ends With Us sent audience cues that Lily and Atlas are meant for each other.

It Ends With Us was a massive gamble. While there are some fumbles plus the inevitable controversy that comes with depicting a thorny and personal subject, this adaptation of Hoover's bittersweet tale gets a lot of things right. While it offers no easy answers and leaves much up to the audience, it's ultimately a tender take on one of the toughest aspects of the human condition. Despite its darker side, the movie leaves audiences with hope for the characters' futures as well as their own.

It Ends With Us hits theaters August 9th.

It Ends With Us

Based on Colleen Hoover's 2016 novel, It Ends With Us is a drama-romance film directed by Justin Baldoni. The film follows a recent college graduate named Lily, who meets a man named Ryle and falls in love with him. However, a traumatic incident compounded with her former high-school sweetheart re-entering her life complicates her plans.

Well-acted with nuanced performances
A mature take on domestic abuse and redemption
Excellent, romantic art direction adds to the narrative
Domestic abuse is a difficult topic to portray
Some sequences drag on too long
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The Violent Body Horror Movie Doubles as a Bloody Coming-of-Age Story

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The Big Picture

Excision challenges the typical perception of body horror by using it as a crucial storytelling element for character development.
The film portrays a socially outcast protagonist, Pauline, who navigates her monotonous life through grotesque fantasies of gore.
Pauline's dark daydreams serve as a window into her inner struggles, revealing her vulnerability through disturbing fantasies of power and control.

Body horror films are frequently dismissed as good for shock value and little more. However, in Richard Bates Jr .’s 2012 release, Excision , body horror is a crucial story-telling element. Excision follows Pauline, played by AnnaLynne McCord , as she becomes consumed by her gruesome fantasies of gore . Various mundanities make up the foundations of Pauline’s life and the structure of Excision, from high school to cotillion, as she looks after her younger sister, Grace ( Ariel Winter ), who has cystic fibrosis. It is during these dark fantasies that Pauline is fleshed out as a character and made accessible to the viewer. Despite the overwrought violence of these dreams, Pauline is vulnerable through an honest expression of her desires. Her daydreams and bird autopsies might lead one to believe Pauline is a budding serial killer, but the film utilizes these dark fantasies to reveal a depth to Pauline that otherwise would be missing.

Alienated teen Pauline struggles with the pressures of fitting into high school, pleasing her mother and a burning desire to lose her virginity. With a grotesque curiosity for the darker side of life, Pauline is considered a social outcast by everyone around her. Enticed by flesh, she retreats into her own fantasies and hopes to become a great surgeon - that is, if she doesn't go insane first.

AnnaLynne McCord's Pauline Isn't Your Usual Horror Protagonist

Pauline is a disturbed young woman coping with her monotonous life through delusions of becoming a surgeon and fantasies of stylized corpses . Her desire to be a doctor is inextricably linked to her twisted daydreams. Pauline has no power over her own life, as the movie is quick to show through Pauline’s mother, Phyllis, played by Traci Lords . A domineering presence in the household, Phyllis refuses to send Pauline to a licensed therapist, opting instead for a priest. Phyllis signs Pauline up for cotillion practice, despite her being several years too old, further emphasizing Pauline’s sense of ostracization. Inside the safety of her own fantasies, Pauline is entirely in control. She has absolute power . Whereas in most other films, watching a powerless character gain autonomy would be a stand-up-and-cheer moment, watching Pauline become aroused as she picks at dead people leaves the audience feeling quite queasy. Pauline's perverse displays of power are intentionally paralleled by Phyllis' tyranny over the home. Pauline is the protagonist, but she is no hero.

Excision mixes several familiar horror tropes to paint a complicated portrait of Pauline. The dread of suburbia and the nuclear family , the plight of the thin, white teenage girl, and the misunderstood loner. These tropes are staples not just of the horror genre, but of coming-of-age stories . And yet, Pauline does not feel like a familiar character. Pauline has traits that could make her both the final girl and the knife-wielding killer. She is the last one standing at the end, but at what cost? She terrorizes her family, neighborhood, and school. Despite these infractions, Excision takes great pains to ensure the audience still feels for her.

‘Excision’ Is Full of Bloody, Gory Fantasy Sequences

Pauline spends a lot of time dreaming about blood and guts. The aesthetics of these fantasies are distinctly different from the world she lives in . While Pauline spends her time in typical suburbia, her dream world is vivid with a specific aesthetic . The lighting for these scenes is harsh and florescent, leaving the actors entirely exposed. The color scheme is electric blues, greens, and white, ensuring the bodies and gore pop, and the soundscape is razor-sharp. Combined with the visuals, these moments feel abrasive. Pauline looks entirely unlike herself in these fantasies, further heightening the unreality of it all. She wears outlandish makeup, elaborate hairstyles, bold hair dye, or eccentric wigs. Her outfits are skimpy and eye-catching in their strangeness. Inside these fantasies, everything feels too much .

A24’s First Horror Movie Was This Skin-Crawling Kevin Smith Body Horror

Smith kickstarted the company's prosperous relationship with all things horror.

What catches Pauline’s and the audience’s attention in these dreams is the grotesque . In every fantasy, Pauline is interacting with a mutilated corpse, or someone dying, or an excess of blood. The unrestrained gore of Pauline’s fantasies is the vehicle Excision uses to grant the viewer access to Pauline’s inner life. By expressing her fantasies through body horror, Pauline is able to exercise control over not only herself but others. She is dismissed or outright told she’s disgusting by her peers, but in her dreams, Pauline is the central figure.

All the dead bodies gravitate towards her and she is allowed to touch whatever she wants. Pauline is a disturbed teenager, not a disenfranchised one. Regardless, she is still a young person coming of age and has all the anxieties of someone in her age group. One dream scene shows three people taking a bite out of Pauline, who, when she wakes, decides to lose her virginity. After having done so, she is afraid she might be pregnant, an anxiety that works its way into her dreams that night. Mixed in with all the visually engaging gore, these fantasies are the key to understanding a character who is primarily closed off to other characters and the audience. Pauline is not a cold-blooded killer or a monster unleashed on her family; she is a mentally unwell teenager who is receiving no help for her increasingly violent delusions.

The Cast of ‘Excision’ Delivers Heart-Wrenching Performances

The cast of Excision is brimming with seasoned Hollywood stars. AnnaLynne McCord, who rose to stardom through more traditionally seductive roles like in 90210 , knocks it out of the park as Pauline. Her performance is off-putting and awkward, with a real bite underneath. In each fantasy sequence, McCord’s eyes are bright and alert, as opposed to the apathetic dismissal she wears during family dinner scenes. The suburban horror of the film is dependent on the performances of Pauline’s parents. Phyllis and Bob, played by Traci Lords and Roger Bart , ground Excision ’s over-the-top gore in realistic dread . Phyllis’ staunch refusal to admit Pauline can’t be fixed up with cotillion classes and Bob’s complete submission to his wife’s whims are what allow Pauline to become so dangerous. In the final scene, when Phyllis embraces Pauline, her howl of grief causes goosebumps. Dressed in pearls, Lords looks entirely out of place in the makeshift mad scientist lab. Her restrained agony in that final scene is what makes the ending so chilling.

The final ten minutes of Excision puts all the sympathy one might have had for Pauline to the test. She drugs her neighbor and sister and attempts lung transplant surgery in the garage . Despite her desire to become a doctor being another self-aggrandizing fantasy, it is clear this attempt at surgery came from Pauline’s impulse to love and look after Grace. Throughout the film, Pauline looks only at Grace with real love and affection. At its most basic level, body horror reminds the audience of the necessity of a body. Grace’s sickness does the same thing to Pauline. Her sister’s body is failing, which forces Pauline to act. Pauline’s fantasies breach reality, deluding her into thinking she has control over the situation. While the reminder of her powerlessness might generate some sympathy, the aesthetics of the scene do Pauline no favors. Dressed in all white, head shaved, and splattered with the blood of two young teens, Pauline looks every bit the mad doctor she’s always wanted to be. This push and pull of Pauline's warped urge to help her sister and the grim reminder of how her fantasies have manifested into reality leave the viewer conflicted about whether they should feel sorry for the protagonist.

Excision uses its moments of shockingly erotic violence to teach the audience how to view Pauline. Her interest in the macabre is not unusual for a horror antagonist. Yet, Pauline is not written to be a villain. Her actions are villainous, but through these complex dreams, Excision makes it clear that she is not malicious. Without the blood-soaked fantasies , Pauline would be a two-dimensional, stock character. The movie wouldn't be the engaging watch that it is, either. These fantasies are charged, jumping off the screen with bright colors and shocking motifs. Watching Pauline sink into a bathtub full of blood is shocking, but it's also informative and essential to understanding her motivations in the following scenes. Once the audience begins to get comfortable with all the gore, Excision pulls the rug out from under their feet one last time. The final scene is devastating and completes for Pauline what is not so much a character arch, but a character devolution.

Excision is available to stream on Prime Video.

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I have spent hundreds of hours in the worlds of Gearbox Software and 2K Games’ “Borderlands,” enraptured by its addictive structure, one that encourages exploration, teamwork, and a constant pursuit of new weapons to unleash on waves of enemies (I've written about it here and here , among many other places). While these games are undeniably repetitive – like any titles based on what they call loot farming, which means looking for better and better gear that you can call your own – they also exist in a massive world of truly memorable characters like Claptrap, Mad Moxxi, Tiny Tina, and Handsome Jack. The most common setting, the planet of Pandora, is populated by everything from dragon-like creatures to masked enemies who look a lot like the suicidal maniacs in “ Mad Max: Fury Road .” And all of this comes with creative design choices and clever plotting that often includes jokes and twists that harken back to an old-fashioned, almost Vaudevillian sense of humor. It’s not unlike Mel Brooks meets George Miller .

All of this is to say that my biggest concern after watching Eli Roth ’s abysmal “Borderlands” is that it will now tarnish the legacy of a pop culture franchise that deserves better. Nothing that works about the games has been adapted intact in this ugly, boring, truly inept piece of filmmaking, a movie that was mostly shot years ago and should have been shelved even longer. Like, maybe forever.

Cate Blanchett (who made this before “TAR” and before Roth made " Thanksgiving ," to give you some idea how long it’s been gathering dust) stars as Lilith, one of the beloved Vault Hunters from the video game that has made the jump from console to screen. In this version, Lilith is a bounty hunter, approached one night by employees of the all-powerful Atlas ( Edgar Ramirez ), who has a high-paying job for the tough-talking mercenary. When Lilith is swayed by the amount of money that Atlas is willing to pay for the gig, I laughed, thinking (hoping) that Blanchett also got a life-changing amount of cash to star in a project that’s this far below her talent level.

The job is to find Tina ( Ariana Greenblatt ), the daughter of Atlas, who has been kidnapped by another classic video game character named Roland ( Kevin Hart ), a soldier who has gone rogue and escaped to Pandora with the girl and a “Psycho” named Krieg ( Florian Munteanu ). She may be the answer to a legendary vault on Pandora that has created an entire industry of treasure hunters trying to find it.

On returning to her home planet of Pandora, Lilith runs into a robot named Claptrap (voiced by Jack Black ), who serves as a sort of comic relief. This, of course, would imply there's actual comedy in this film. There is not. Just endless rambling. Fans of the game will notice some other familiar personalities like Moxxi ( Gina Gershon ) and Tannis ( Jamie Lee Curtis ). According to some published credits, Scooter and Hammerlock also make appearances. But blink, and you’ll miss them. I must have blinked.

Lilith, Roland, Tannis, Claptrap, and Krieg should be an obvious variation on the Guardians of the Galaxy, outcasts on a distant planet who have to use their different strengths to save the day as a team. But the script by Roth and Joe Crombie is flatly uninterested in giving them memorable traits. Blanchett is such a great actress that she sells a little bit of this defiantly shallow screenplay with a smirk, but Hart looks visibly bored at times, perhaps swallowed up in the reshoots that led to a lot of the delays on the release of this film.

On that note, the script for “Borderlands” was once credited to Craig Mazin , the genius behind “ Chernobyl ” and “The Last of Us,” but he’s taken his name off the film now after the reshoots. When a film goes through that much turmoil, one can usually see where the final product has been Frankenstein-ed back together, but even that game is hard to play here. One can imagine a Mazin version that puts a bit more love and care into the world-building than this version, but so little of that has made it to the final cut.

Part of the reason it fails in that department is that Roth, a director I’ve defended in the horror genre a few times, is remarkably inept at directing action. When the film bursts into gunfire, to call these sequences incoherent would be polite. I’m not sure if cinematographer Rogier Stoffers and/or editors Julian Clarke & Evan Henke deserve some of the blame, but the fight scenes are baffling in their construction. They're cut in a way that makes it impossible to know the geography of an action scene, or really to care about what happens in them. It may sound picky, but a movie based on an action video game needs at least to provide visceral, escapist entertainment in the guns-and-punches department. There’s not a single memorable action beat in this movie. Not one.

After decades of being considered poison for creative artists, video game movies have earned something of a commercial and critical reappraisal in the last few years. A critical darling like “The Last of Us” and a commercial one like “ The Super Mario Bros. Movie ” means that Hollywood has found a new vein of beloved IPs to tap and they’re going to make ALL of your favorite games into movies. As my mind wandered in the mid-section of “Borderlands” to other games I love, and how similar projects could ruin my affection for them, I had a vision of Eli Roth’s “Elden Ring.” I almost started to cry.

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

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Film credits.

Borderlands (2024)

Rated PG-13

101 minutes

Cate Blanchett as Lilith

Kevin Hart as Roland

Jack Black as Claptrap (voice)

Jamie Lee Curtis as Dr. Patricia Tannis

Edgar Ramírez as Atlas

Ariana Greenblatt as Tiny Tina

Florian Munteanu as Krieg

Gina Gershon as Moxxi

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<i>It Ends With Us</i> Can’t Quite Turn Trauma into Drama

It Ends With Us Can’t Quite Turn Trauma into Drama

A movie or book can address a serious, emotionally wrenching subject and still be a thing you can’t help snickering at, a dramatic pileup that leaves you muttering “Oh, come on!” under your breath. It Ends With Us , the film adaptation of Colleen Hoover ’s ferociously popular 2016 novel, works hard to ping all the appropriate notes. This is after all, a story of domestic abuse, a more widely shared experience in real life than most of us want to face up to. (Hoover has said that the book was inspired by her mother, who was physically abused by Hoover’s father.) And the objective reality is that we need movies like It Ends With Us . The classic genre known as the woman’s film—pictures like King Vidor’s 1937 Stella Dallas, or either version of Imitation of Life, filmed first by John Stahl in 1934 and later, in 1959, by Douglas Sirk—thrived in the ’30s, ’40s, and beyond by carving out a safe space for emotional catharsis . Women, and sometimes men, often need to cry it all out, and aren’t the movies—a refuge in the dark—the perfect place to do that?

But It Ends With Us —directed by Justin Baldoni, who also co-stars—doesn’t have the mojo to get the waterworks pumping, not even in a gentle, reserved way. Blake Lively stars as the kookily named Lily Bloom, a thoughtful young woman with a hippie-patchwork wardrobe and a guardedly bright outlook on life. She lives in Boston; she’s about to open her own flower shop, the fulfillment of a lifelong dream. In all ways, this is a period of transition. Her father has just died, and she’s not sure what to do with her mixed feelings; as we learn more about the way he abused Lily’s mother, and others, we understand why. Lily has just returned from the funeral, held in her Maine hometown, and with her jumbled thoughts, she has stolen away to a Boston rooftop with a dreamy view. But she doesn’t actually live in the building. And when a handsome neurosurgeon, who is a resident, blusters his way onto that rooftop, you get the sense her life will be changed forever.

His name is Ryle Kincaid—he’s played by Baldoni—and he's almost criminally handsome, with his sympathetic dark eyes and 10 o’clock shadow, even sexier than the 5 o’clock kind. He’s just got to be a wolf in wolf’s clothing, and in the first minutes of their meeting, it sure seems that way. The two find themselves engaged in the kind of disarmingly frank conversation that can often brew between strangers. He’s had a terrible day; she’s just lost her father, a man she loved despite the fact he might not have deserved it. Ryle listens to her, but he also tells her, “I want to have sex with you,” clearly taken with her haute-hippie-girl breeziness, which glows even through her conflicted grief. And though she calls him out, rightly, on his perhaps overly direct sales pitch, they almost do sleep together—until he’s called away to work. Because a handsome neurosurgeon’s work is never done.

Lily thinks that’s the end of it. A day or so later she gets the keys to her new shop and sets about sprucing it up, both hiring a helper and making a new friend on the same day: rich lady Allysa (the always-wonderful Jenny Slate , who breathes some life into the movie whenever she’s on-screen) just happens to stop in. She wants a job; trusting her instincts, Lily gives her one. The two become fast friends. And guess what? It turns out that semi-scary Dr. McDreamy, AKA Ryle, is Allysa's brother. What are the odds?

Though Allysa offers a few subtle warnings about Ryle’s romantic history , he and Lily fall in love anyway. Sure, he’s a player. But he makes it clear he wants to try for a real relationship with Lily. She goes for it—and then a love from her teenage years, whom we’ve previously met in flashbacks, unexpectedly steps into the frame. Atlas Corrigan (Brandon Sklenar), is now a handsome but down-to-earth Boston restaurateur, and when Lily spots him, we can see there's still a spark between the two. But Lily has already earned Ryle’s trust; she decides to stay the course.

Until this point, It Ends With Us could be your classic but not-too-heavy romantic melodrama , replete with hot but tender sex and dashes of romantic befuddlement. But if you’ve read Hoover’s book , you’ll know what’s coming. Lily herself becomes the victim of domestic abuse, and it doesn’t arrive with loud warning bells. In fact, the first time Lily is injured, resulting in a bruised eye she attempts to conceal with makeup, the event is presented as an accident triggered by a scuffle to remove a burned frittata from the oven. It could happen to anyone. But the second incident is more clear-cut, and the third is unequivocally violent. Still, you look at Ryle, as Lily seems to, as possibly fixable. He’s suffering; his inner turmoil is causing him to act out. The movie is accurate and effective in this sense: for so many abused women, you never know how bad it can get, until it gets really bad.

Yet none of that is enough to make you fully buy what the movie’s selling. Lively has been terrific in other movies: her turn in the 2016 woman-vs.-shark thriller The Shallows was one of the great scream-queen performances of the last decade, and she showed nervy gravitas in Ben Affleck’s The Town. But It Ends With Us lets her down. The men, with their flaws—even kind, stalwart Atlas has a very short fuse, a yellow flag if not a red one—are far more interesting than Lily is. That doesn’t give them the right to inflict violence; but from a dramatic standpoint, it certainly makes them more electric. As Lively plays her, Lily is a blank, glassy surface, the better to reflect the shortcomings of the men around her; that’s not the same as being a person. Even by the movie’s end, she still feels like something of a muted stranger—it’s the men who come off as fully alive, as dangerous as one of them may be.

The problem, maybe, is that It Ends With Us is all about what it’s about, and nothing more. These characters exist to make points about the insidiousness of domestic violence, the way its effects can creep up invisibly even as those who are suffering cloak themselves in protective denial. Admittedly, that’s a lot for a movie to carry. But movies can’t just be efficient feeling-delivery systems; they have to work on us in subtler ways. It Ends With Us makes all its points, all right, but in a way that’s more edifying than moving. And despite the prettiness of its Boston setting, it isn’t as visually alluring as it should be. For one thing, this is a movie about a flower-loving florist that’s embarrassingly low on flowers, except for a few droopy, half-dead Victorian-looking things. It’s OK, even in a story addressing a traumatic subject, to dab a little color here and there. Flowers, their short-lived beauty notwithstanding, can often brighten even the bleakest day. In this movie, they're treated like something we don't deserve, a blessing closed up tight, instead of a thing worth living for.

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Love Hard movie review & film summary (2021)
Although it doesn't have the yuletide joy I had hoped for, "Love Hard" has its endearing moments. Almost every scene with Natalie, Josh, and Josh's family—which includes Grandma (Takayo Fischer), his dad Bob (James Saito), step-mom Barb (Rebecca Staab) and competitive brother Owen (Harry Shum Jr.) and his wife Chelsea (Mikaela Hoover)—is a winner, playing up the pressure on the faux ...
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Dec 10, 2021 Full Review David Ehrlich indieWire American rom-coms have become a zombie genre, and brainless streaming content like Love Hard -- from its tech-driven narrative, nostalgic plotting ...
'Love Hard' Review: Seeking Connection, Not Perfection
Nov. 5, 2021. Love Hard. Directed by Hernan Jimenez. Comedy, Romance. 1h 44m. Find Tickets. When you purchase a ticket for an independently reviewed film through our site, we earn an affiliate ...
'Love Hard' Netflix Review: Stream It or Skip It?
Love Hard is, of course, held together by a trio of perfect performances from Dobrev, Yang, and Barnet. Dobrev's Natalie is a romcom protagonist who feels completely of the moment; she's smart ...
Love Hard (2021)
7/10. A funny comedy by Hernán Jiménez. DogePelis2015 13 November 2021. It is a fun, entertaining movie and the performances by Nina Dobrev and Jimmy O. Yang are excellent; it is highly recommended and can be enjoyed on Netflix. 59 out of 63 found this helpful.
Love Hard review
0. 4. Summary. In a world of fast-paced modern dating that appears to focus on polyamory relationships and narcissistic conquests, Love Hard reminds audiences that being authentic is way more powerful. This review of the Netflix film Love Hard does not contain spoilers. One of the most-needed components of a romantic comedy is giving reasons ...
Love Hard Review
13 Images. Directed by Hernán Jiménez and written by Danny Mackey and Rebecca Ewing, Love Hard follows disaster dating columnist Natalie (Nina Dobrev) as she believes she has finally found the ...
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While Dobrev is delightful in Love Hard, the film really does belong to Yang, who is quickly becoming a household name. The star in the making is thoroughly entertaining, charming, sweet, and very funny as he plays Josh, one-half of the accidental Cyrano de Bergerac situation. In every way possible, Yang is the perfect romantic comedy leading man.
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Full Review | Original Score: 3/5 | Nov 9, 2021. Molly Adams In Review Online. The film, though frothy and disposable, does have some endearing moments, but with better casting, Love Hard ...
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On a positive note, she's managed to turn her horrible love life into a successful online writing career. She chronicles her bad dates under the pseudonym "Always a Bridesmaid." And her readers love all the angsty dating drama. But then Natalie meets Josh. Josh is everything she wants: sweet, funny, intelligent, single. And as a perk, he ...
Love Hard (2021)
Love Hard: Directed by Hernán Jiménez. With Nina Dobrev, Jimmy O. Yang, Darren Barnet, James Saito. An LA girl, unlucky in love, falls for an East Coast guy on a dating app and decides to surprise him for the holidays, only to discover that she's been catfished. This lighthearted romantic comedy chronicles her attempt to reel in love.
Love Hard Movie Review
Parents need to know that Love Hard is a holiday romantic comedy about a woman who gets catfished by a man she meets on a dating app. The idea of seeking love online, and the assumptions men and women make about each other based on superficial profiles, is a theme, as is the value of being authentic with oneself and one's friends, online and in person.
Love Hard Review: Nina Dobrev Is Catfished in Netflix Christmas Movie
It's a Christmas miracle this movie ends before Natalie and Josh can get into a screaming match about whether that dress is gold or blue. Indeed, it turns out this star-crossed duo have some ...
'Love Hard' Review: Swipe Left on Netflix's Digital-Age ...
Love Hard, Nina Dobrev. 'Love Hard' Review: Swipe Left on Netflix's Digital-Age Dating Disaster. Reviewed online, Los Angeles, Nov. 3, 2021. Running time: 104 MIN. Production: A Netflix ...
Love Hard Movie Review & Film Summary: The Hardest Christmas Movie to
Love Hard starring Victoria Justice Nina Dobrev, Jimmy O Yang and Darren Barnet is the first Christmas movie that I watched this year. It had a very promising trailer that finally gave Darren a chance to play a man his age. On another Netflix show, Never Have I Ever, Darren played the role of a 17-year-old jock named Paxton at the age of 28.
Love Hard: An Unfiltered Review of the Netflix Rom-Com
A POPSUGAR editor watched Netflix's Love Hard and documented 69 unfiltered thoughts about the movie starring Nina Dobrev, Darren Barnet, and Jimmy O. Yang.
Movie Review: "Love Hard" Breaking Through Orientalist View
The movie provides a new refreshing view of Jimmy Yang as he plays a character he has not portrayed in the past. Overall, Love Hard is the classic love story we crave in this holiday season, filled with modern people realizing that love is about true connections and not surface-level attractions. Cady Abe is a new AMI book reviewer and a senior ...
Love Hard
Love Hard is a 2021 American romantic comedy film directed by Hernán Jiménez and written by Danny Mackey and Rebecca Ewing. Starring Nina Dobrev, Jimmy O. Yang, and Darren Barnet, the film follows a young woman who travels to her online crush's hometown for Christmas but discovers she has been catfished.It was produced by Wonderland Sound and Vision and filmed in Vancouver from October to ...
Love Hard Movie Review for Parents
Love Hard Rating & Content Info . Why is Love Hard rated TV-14? Love Hard is rated TV-14 by the MPAA for substances, language . Violence: A woman hits a man with a baby Jesus from an outdoor nativity set. Someone goes into anaphylactic shock. A man mentions having shot a deer. Sexual Content: There's brief mention of a date rape drug. Men briefly discuss genital size.
Love Hard REVIEW
She believes that stories are the essence of being human, and loves sharing this world with her students. She's a Rotten Tomatoes Approved Critic, as well as a contributor to CherryPicks. You can ...
Love Hard
Mixed or Average Based on 8 Critic Reviews. 42. 25% Positive 2 Reviews. 38% Mixed 3 Reviews. 38% Negative 3 Reviews. All Reviews; Positive Reviews; Mixed Reviews; Negative Reviews; 80. ... As a movie, I give love hard a 3/10, as a trigger for unlocking new planes of consciousness I did not previously know existed it gets a 9/10. Read More ...
LOVE HARD
The movie also promotes honesty and seeking forgiveness, which ultimately wins out in the story. Since the movie's set during Christmas, it has strong Christian elements. However, LOVE HARD is marred by lots of foul language, including some strong profanities, crude references to sex, and substance abuse.
Discussion
Discussion - Love Hard (2021) An LA girl, unlucky in love, falls for an East Coast guy on a dating app and decides to surprise him for the holidays, only to discover that she's been catfished. This lighthearted romantic comedy chronicles her attempt to reel in love. Director: Hernan Jimenez. Writers: Daniel Mackey. Rebecca Ewing.
It Ends With Us Review: A Fine & Nuanced Depiction of Abuse
In 2016, novelist Colleen Hoover published "It Ends With Us," a romance story about the destructive cycle of abusive relationships.In 2021, her book reached cult status, garnering a massive following on social media. A tragic tale of lost love, tough choices and redemption, Hoover's novel seemed tailor-made for the big screen.It comes as no surprise that Sony Pictures also realized this and ...
The Violent Body Horror Movie Doubles as a Bloody Coming-of ...
Body horror films are frequently dismissed as good for shock value and little more. However, in Richard Bates Jr.'s 2012 release, Excision, body horror is a crucial story-telling element ...
Borderlands movie review & film summary (2024)
When a film goes through that much turmoil, one can usually see where the final product has been Frankenstein-ed back together, but even that game is hard to play here. One can imagine a Mazin version that puts a bit more love and care into the world-building than this version, but so little of that has made it to the final cut.
Review: It Ends With Us Can't Quite Turn Trauma into Drama
Yet none of that is enough to make you fully buy what the movie's selling. Lively has been terrific in other movies: her turn in the 2016 woman-vs.-shark thriller The Shallows was one of the ...
Review: Blake Lively is outstanding in 'It Ends With Us'
He is the author of two books on pre-censorship Hollywood, "Complicated Women: Sex and Power in Pre-Code Hollywood" and "Dangerous Men: Pre-Code Hollywood and the Birth of the Modern Man." Both were books of the month on Turner Classic Movies and "Complicated Women" formed the basis of a TCM documentary in 2003, narrated by Jane Fonda.
Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba movie review: Taapsee Pannu, Vikrant Massey
Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba movie review: Taapsee Pannu, Vikrant Massey film goes full-tilt at grown-up, amoral romance territory Phir Aayi Hasseen Dillruba movie review: The trio of Taapsee Pannu as the scheming Rani, Vikrant Massey who valiantly stays the course for his one true love, and Sunny Kaushal as 'mar-mitne-wala-aashiq', are all ...
'Cuckoo' Director Tilman Singer on His Love of Mystery and ...
Another one was a movie called "Charade," where Audrey Hepburn is dressed in big sunglasses and a trench coat and a scarf. These were inspirations for [the look]. And then we tried wigs for her.

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