Thanks to Logan Lerman, we’re now enjoying a #SoftboiSummer.
There’s something old-fashioned about Oh, Hi! that harkens back to the days of the Rock Hudson and Doris Day rom-coms of the 50s and 60s. Instead of playful phone banter we get one character telling her tied-up ‘boyfriend’ that she wants to stab him. Okay, maybe Universal didn’t go that dark, but writer/director Sophie Brooks is far more interested in the actual ways relationships work/don’t work versus the typical Hollywood-ized version that provides for simple set-ups and solutions. There’s nothing simple about the situations in this picture. And it’s that attention to authenticity that sets Oh, Hi! apart from its contemporaries.
For their fourth date, new couple Iris (Molly Gordon) and Isaac (Logan Lerman) head to upstate New York for a weekend getaway, where they plan to get to know each other better and take their relationship to the next level – or, so Iris thinks. Right from the start, we get a sense that something is afoot, after Isaac is basically verbally molested by a strawberry vendor, and Isaac leans into it hardcore. Iris notices this, but doesn’t think much about it. Flash forward to an unexpectedly kinky bondage session when Isaac tells Iris he has no interest in being in a relationship. Stunned and confused, Iris keeps Isaac tied to the bed and refuses to let him go until she can convince him that they are perfect for each other. If this sounds like kidnapping, that’s because it is, and that inciting event is what drives Oh, Hi! forward.
There are no villains here. Iris might be a little crazy and over-emotional, but she’s not wrong about Isaac and what he’s done. Everything we see Isaac do for and with Iris leads us to believe, just as she does, that they are well on their way to #relationshipgoals. Even when Iris’s friends – Max (Geraldine Viswanathan) and her boyfriend Kenny (John Reynolds) – arrive to help her sort through everything, they’re as bewildered as Iris, especially since they both really like Isaac too. Iris knows what she’s doing is wrong, and even understands she might end up in jail because of it, but she cannot accept that this man she has already put so much investment into, a man who pursued her, could want something casual and ‘no strings attached’.
As “Isaac”, Logan Lerman validates why he has long been considered ‘the internet’s boyfriend’. He’s the boyfriend every woman would want – gorgeous, considerate, funny, fun, willing to go down to Flavortown. What makes Isaac such a compelling character is what’s underneath the surface that we don’t really learn much about, weirdly, and to the film’s discredit. Isaac is a character with clear emotional baggage and unresolved feelings towards relationships, which is the fuel for his inability to commit. Don’t get me wrong – I am happy to spend an hour with Lerman half-naked tied to a bed, but I’d have rather they spent some of that time fleshing out his emotional baggage the same way they did for Iris. At the end of the film, we feel that Iris has learned some valuable lessons, while Isaac is still somewhat broken.
So: what is a ‘softboi’? According to Max in the film, a softboi is someone who isn’t quite a ‘fuckboi’, but someone who wants to feel all of the wonderful things associated with a relationship without actually having to be in one. You know people like this. I certainly know people like this. We all have a softboi or two in our lives, and Oh, Hi! is some much needed representation for them. Minus the kidnapping and bondage, I actually had a close friend (a total softboi at the time) who experienced a lot of what Isaac experiences in this film. He was seeing a girl, he thought casually, while she had decided in her head that they were in an exclusive relationship and full-on ‘dating’. They had never had sex. They had never gone on an official date. It was all quite casual, but became something ‘else’ for her. I could write an entire novel about the insanity that ensued after that, but just watch Oh, Hi! instead.
What really put this film over the top for me was the ending. Oh, Hi! doesn’t go the traditional Hollywood rom-com route, and it’s all the better for it. Brooks gives the audience the chance to create their own ending for these characters, and leaves open so many pathways. We want Iris to be happy. We want Isaac to be happy. We want Max and Kenny to be happy. Oh, Hi! is one of the sweetest and most endearing films I’ve seen in a long time, even when it’s being dangerous, bitingly funny, and deeply uncomfortable. Molly Gordon and Logan Lerman are electric both together and apart in this film, and their energy and vulnerability turn what could have been a forgettable millennial Gerald’s Game into something more kind, more astute, and more real. It’s more of an accomplishment than you realize, at first. Given the ball gags and witchcraft involved, I don’t think Rock Hudson and Doris Day could have done it any better.
RATING: ***1/2/***** (now playing in theatres everywhere via Sony Pictures Classics)
