Movie Review

High society sons engage in international romance in Red, White & Royal Blue

The progression of LGBTQ+ romantic comedies in mainstream movies has been relatively slow in the long history of the medium, but once the dam broke a few years ago, the pace has quickened considerably. Films like Love, Simon and Happiest Season set the stage for films like Fire Island and Bros to go even further, and now Red, White & Royal Blue has delivered perhaps the biggest punch to date.

The setup for the film reads just like any number of cheesy Lifetime movies: Prince Henry of England (Nicholas Galitzine) and Alex Claremont-Diaz (Taylor Zakhar Perez), the son of U.S. President Ellen Claremont (Uma Thurman), cause a bit of an international incident when they cause the cake to fall at a royal wedding. Already at odds with each other, they are forced to do a series of public relations sessions together, soon discovering that their feelings for each other are changing.

Of course, a romance between two high-profile people like them is not easy to pull off, especially for Henry given the notoriously conservative nature of the royal family. The two attempt to keep a relationship going by pretending to be good friends, but as any rom-com fan knows, it’s only a matter of time before their subterfuge is revealed…

Directed by Matthew López and written by López and Ted Malawer, the film is pure fantasy in all the best ways. The setup phase is worthy of the biggest eye rolls, but once they get past that, the story only continues to get better. Sure, you have to just go with the idea of a prince and the son of a president being able to avoid public attention, but the goofiness of pairing two people of high social status soon gives way to a great examination of the cost of the relationship for both of them. The relationship itself is treated with dignity, respect, and fun.

This is especially true in the case of Henry and Alex’s more intimate moments. Just as in Bros, there is no hesitation at letting the two men engage in multiple make-out sessions and actual sex scenes that, while not graphic, intimate certain acts with no ambiguity. There is also dialogue with sexual innuendo that makes the film even funnier than it already was.

The film also does a decent job including the secondary story of Ellen Claremont, a Democrat from Texas, running for re-election and having Alex run point on trying to get Texas to flip from red to blue. The implausibility of a female Democrat from Texas becoming president in this day and age, and of her flipping Texas, places the film firmly in the realm of make-believe, but, much like The American President or Dave, they sell it well in the film.

Both Galitzine and Perez are cast extremely well, with Galitzine perfectly embodying the upper crust nature of British royalty and Perez giving off a great cocky American vibe. Most importantly, they have real chemistry, which does more than anything else to make the film work. Thurman is hit-and-miss with her Texas accent, but she’s otherwise solid. Other standouts include Sarah Shahi, Rachel Hilson, and Clifton Collins.

Red, White & Royal Blue breaks out from an early rut to become a charming, interesting, and utterly romantic movie. It plays all the rom-com hits and plays them well, adding in the spice of social commentary to complete the idea of how normal a coupling like this should be to the world.

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Red, White & Royal Blue is now streaming on Prime Video.

Photo courtesy of Prime Video

Taylor Zakhar Perez and Nicholas Galitzine in Red, White & Royal Blue

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Movie Review

Podcaster lets creepy noises get under her skin in Undertone

Photo courtsy of A24

Nina Kiri in Undertone.

While the horror genre is still capable of producing some innovative filmmaking, most of the output tends to fall back on jump scares and other tropes to deliver their terror. So when a film like the new Undertone tries something different, it should be applauded for the effort, even if it’s not as successful in its execution.

Evy (Nina Kiri) is a podcaster who co-hosts a show called Undertone, which focuses on paranormal videos and sounds they find on the internet. Her co-host, Justin (Adam DiMarco), lives in London, so - for kind of contrived reasons - in order to make the time difference between them work, Evy records at around 3 am her time. Evy - who lives at home with her bedridden, dying mother - is the skeptic of the two, consistently debunking clips that Justin presents to her.

Her doubts are tested when Justin brings in a series of 10 audio clips that purport to be about a boyfriend recording his girlfriend as she talks in her sleep. The audio begins in a lighthearted manner and quickly turns creepy and then sinister as unexplained things start happening. Evy senses that what she’s hearing is bleeding into her own world, especially when inexplicable actions take place in her mother’s bedroom.

Written and directed by first-time feature filmmaker Ian Tuason, the film is effective early on when it introduces the story concept. Making great use of sound design, Tuason essentially puts the audience inside Evy’s head, where every little sound is heightened. Setting the podcast sessions in the middle of the night ups the anxiety level for both her and the audience.

However, as the film goes along it gets a little tedious watching Evy listen to the audio, even as Tuason attempts to keep the film dynamic by moving the camera around her. The premise of the story - progressively going through 10 clips - and Tuason’s framing of shots that focus as much on the background as they do on Evy seem to promise more interesting results than actually transpire.

What ultimately holds the film down more than anything is its lack of different viewpoints. The only other person who’s actually seen is Evy’s mother, who is unable to speak. Evy speaks to Justin, another friend, and a doctor over the course of the story, and while each broadens our understanding of Evy somewhat, none of them make her a truly three-dimensional person. Getting a little more information about her history might have helped the story work better.

Kiri does her level best to vary her acting in the various podcast scenes, and even when they start to get repetitive, she remains compelling and watchable. It’s difficult to judge the other actors based on audio alone, but knowing that DiMarco also starred in season 2 of The White Lotus helps to visualize him and his acting style.

Undertone does well in creating a spine-chilling mood, but it needed something beyond that to become a truly great horror movie. Tuason shows some promise as a filmmaker, especially in the way he uses the camera to create tension, but a more complete story will serve him better the next time around.

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Undertone is now playing in theaters,

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