Final Rating: 4/5
Like many movie theaters these days, my small-ish local chain offers surprise screenings on Mondays. Unlike the more prominent national names like AMC and Regal, they do not alter the duration online to obfuscate anything, so any viewer with 15 minutes on their hands and access to a search engine can work things out. All of this to say: a couple weeks ago, I saw that the surprise screening was 94 minutes long and after working out that Oh, Hi! (dir. Sophie Brooks) would be playing, I promptly invited my friends to come along.
The film, written both by Sophie Brooks and its star Molly Gordon bills itself as a romantic comedy and seeing this with an unsuspecting crowd was really a treat. I encourage you to either stop reading this and buy your advance ticket ASAP or continue reading with plans to trick your friends into going in blind.
It’s been a great year for comedy, with several standouts being centered around women. Sorry, Baby, which earned itself a wide release on July 18th after successful limited showings, was phenomenal in theaters, largely because it touched on some very painful (and unfortunately common topics for women) while keeping a firm grasp on comedy. Oh, Hi! stands firmly on the more slapstick end of the dark comedy spectrum, playing with some messy, if absurd, ideas without wading into darker subject matter.
The editing in this movie stood out to me. Molly Gordon’s style of comedy benefits from tight comedic editing, and it really helped her performance shine. She was phenomenal on her own, but I wouldn’t say she carried the film by any means. Logan Lerman is a solid straight man throughout, and walks a fine line of being the kind of guy you hate to see your friend flirting with at the bar while remaining entirely empathetic to the audience.
Geraldine Viswanathan and John Reynolds’ appearance midway through the movie breathes new life into the premise, which by then was running a bit thin. They help to ground the movie and remind the audience just how absurd the whole situation is. David Cross shows up to do a classic David Cross-type character, and he fits perfectly into the pseudo-reality this movie carves out for itself.
My friends and I laughed out loud throughout, with plenty of moments where my friend nudged her boyfriend in that, “see, I always say that!” kind of way. I plan to see it again with my husband the moment it hits theaters later this month because I keep wanting to tell him jokes from the movie that have stuck with me, but I just cannot do them justice. Overall, I had a ton of fun with this, and I would recommend it to most people but especially to anyone who’s found themselves complaining about a situationship in recent memory.
