David Jonsson Archives

Review: ‘Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin.,’ starring Jonas Dassler, August Diehl, David Jonsson, Flula Borg, Moritz Bleibtreu, William Robinson and Clarke Peters

November 12, 2024

by Carla Hay

“Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin.”

Directed by Todd Komarnicki

Culture Representation: Taking place from 1914 to 1945, in Europe and in the United States, the dramatic film “Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin.” (a biopic of German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer) features a predominantly white cast of characters (with some African Americans) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: Dietrich Bonhoeffer, who was executed by Nazis in 1945, was an outspoken pacificist and activist against the Nazi regime that caused the Holocaust and other atrocities.

Culture Audience: “Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin.” will appeal mainly to people who are interested in World War II-era historical dramas and faith-based films, but this heavy-handed movie distorts facts to make it look like Christianity was the driving force for the anti-Nazi movement.

David Jonsson, Clarke Peters and Jonas Dassler in “Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin.” (Photo courtesy of Angel Studios)

“Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin.” is an example of a faith-based movie that tries to pass itself off as a credible historical drama but has alarmed many experts on the film’s subject matter for how this movie could be used for a Christian nationalist agenda. This tedious and inaccurate biopic of German pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer makes his suffering from Nazi hate look more important than the non-Aryan targets of the same hate. Several cast members have condemned any Christian nationalism co-opting of this movie. Even without this condemnation, “Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin.” is a misguided movie that’s a hokey and jumbled mess.

Written and directed by Todd Komarnicki, “Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin.” (formerly titled “God’s Spy”) seems to have very good intentions in its messages of how Bonhoeffer was an activist against Nazi hate. And to be clear: “Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin.” does convey the same messages that say Nazi ideology is evil and poisonous to humanity. However, the offensive preachiness and inaccuracies in the movie have to do with sidelining people who’ve experienced the worst punishments from Nazi hate, in order to make it look like Bonhoeffer had a brand of “white savior” Christianity that deserves the most praise in fighting against Nazi hate.

The International Bonhoeffer Society and several principal cast members from “Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin.” have, according to a statement, “distanced themselves from possible misuses of the film. They stand behind the calls from Bonhoeffer scholars, church leaders, and extended members of the Bonhoeffer family to stop the distortion of Bonhoeffer’s life and legacy to justify Christian Nationalism and political violence.” Read the full statement here. The International Bonhoeffer Society is a non-profit group “dedicated to advancing the theology and legacy of German pastor-theologian and Nazi resister, Dietrich Bonhoeffer, in the academy, church, and world,” according to a description on the International Bonhoeffer Society’s website.

The 10 cast members who have disavowed this movie being used by Christian nationalists or to justify political violence:

Jonas Dassler (who plays the adult Dietrich Bonhoeffer)
August Diehl (who plays German theologian Martin Niemöller)
David Jonsson (who plays American Baptist Church worker Frank Fisher)
Moritz Bleibtreu (who plays Karl Bonhoeffer, Dietrich’s father)
Nadine Heidenreich (who plays Paula Bonhoeffer, Dietrich’s mother)
James Flynn (who plays Dr. Rascher, a Nazi medical doctor)
Lisa Hofer (who plays Sabine Bonhoeffer, Dietrich’s twin sister)
Felix von Bredow (who plays Rudolf-Christoph von Gersdorf, a German intelligence officer)
Patrick Moelleken (who plays Walter Bonhoeffer, Dietrich’s older brother)

In “Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin.,” there’s plenty in the movie that shows Dietrich as a pastor. But there’s a bare minimum showing him as a spy and even less showing him as a would-be (not actual) assassin. Adding to the misleading title, the movie’s main poster shows Dietrich holding a gun, which goes completely against the real Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s pacificist beliefs.

The movie’s marketing materials make it look like “Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin.” is about a vengeful religious crusader who’s intent on murdering Nazi leader Adolf Hitler to stop the Holocaust and to be a World War II hero. In real life, in 1945, Dietrich Bonhoeffer (who was 39 years old at the time) was executed by hanging in Flossenbürg, Germany, after he was accused of money laundering and a conspiracy to assassinate Hitler. In the movie, this death is depicted in a way that looks uncomfortably like a toned-down and misleading version of what really happened to someone imprisoned by Nazis for an accusation of planning to assassinate Hitler.

“Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin.” begins in 1914, by showing 8-year-old Dietrich (played by Phileas Heyblom) having an idyllic childhood in his hometown of Breslau, a city that was part of Germany at the time but is now part of Poland. Dietrich’s psychiatrist/neurologist father Karl Bonhoeffer and Dietrich’s teacher mother Paula Bonhoeffer are depicted in the movie as having six children, including Dietrich’s twin sister Sabine (played by Luise Landau) and eldest child Walter, who was Dietrich’s most beloved sibling. An early scene in the movie shows Walter playing hide-and-go-seek games with Dietrich.

Dietrich’s childhood bliss is shattered in 1914, when Walter goes away for military service in World War I and is killed during this military duty. The movie’s timeline jumps all over the place in a way that will cause confusion for anyone who doesn’t know Dietrich Bonhoeffer’s story. After Walter’s death, the movie cuts to a quick scene of Dietrich in a Nazi prison in Buchenwald, Germany, in 1945, with no real context for why he is there until much later in the movie.

The movie then abruptly cuts to 1930, to show the origins of Dietrich becoming a Lutheran pastor. But even that part of his history is truncated, because the movie completely omits his university education in Germany, where he received a Ph.D. in theology from Humboldt University of Berlin in 1927. The first time that movie shows Dietrich as a theology student, it’s in 1930, when he’s a German immigrant at Union Theological Seminary in New York City.

Dietrich is considered to be a brilliant student in this American seminary, where he gets some jealousy and curiosity from other students in the seminary. While at Union Theological Seminary, Dietrich meets and befriends fellow student Frank Fisher, who introduces Dietrich to jazz nightclubs and the Abyssinian Baptist Church in Harlem, where Frank is a member of the congregation. And the next thing you know, Dietrich is instantly accepted as the only white member of the congregation, and he becomes a Sunday school teacher for the church.

“Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin.” pretends that any realistic racial tension or racial skepticism that Dietrich might have experienced just didn’t exist for him as a white person who hung out with only African Americans. Instead, the movie makes it look like he was able to seamlessly and easily become a part of the African American community with no racial obstacles whatsoever. At a jazz club, Dietrich becomes a star attraction due to his piano-playing skills and gets even more applause and more attention than the African American musicians who regularly play there.

Dietrich is invited to a group dinner at the home of Reverend Powell Sr. (played by Clarke Peters), the leader of the Abyssinian Baptist Church. Frank is also a guest at this dinner. Once again, Dietrich is the only white person in the room, but he is treated like the most important person in the room. His thoughts and needs get the highest priorities.

When Dietrich makes an apology on behalf of white people about the white supremacist racism that he hears is rampant in America, Frank tells Dietrich that he expects Dietrich to set an example to other white people on how not to be racist: “We don’t need to you to be sorry, D. We just need you to show the world.” At this point, Dietrich might as well be wearing a T-shirt that says: “I’m a being propped up as a white Christian savior in this movie.”

The closest that “Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin” comes to showing the brutality of white supremacist racism in America is in a scene where Frank wants Dietrich to learn a lesson by seeing this type of racism firsthand. When Dietrich and Frank are on a visiting trip in Washington, D.C., Frank tells Dietrich to rent a room at a nearby inn. Dietrich is able to easily rent the room from the white innkeeper (played by Scott Winters) on duty at the front desk. The manager is polite and helpful to Dietrich.

Within a few minutes of Dietrich renting the room and getting the room key, Frank goes into the inn and tells the innkeeper that he’s a friend of Dietrich’s and will be sharing the room with him. The innkeeper’s attitude immediately turns hostile. The innkeeper pulls out a shotgun, points it at Frank and Dietrich, and orders both of them to return the room key and leave the building. Dietrich is shocked, but Frank is not shocked at all.

Once again, Dietrich becomes the center of attention as the “white savior” when he insists that Frank should be allowed to use the room too. The innkeeper violently reacts by using the gun to hit Dietrich on the forehead and causes a bloody wound from this assault. The innkeeper doesn’t do anything to Frank except call him a racial insult. In real life, Frank would be more likely than Dietrich to get physically attacked by this racist, but “Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin.” is insistent on making Dietrich look like a saintly hero who suffers and sacrifices himself more than those he’s trying to save.

As Frank and Dietrich leave the inn, Dietrich has the nerve to say to Frank about this blatant racism: “I’m so fortunate that we don’t have this in Germany.” Frank replies, “My brother, hate comes in many colors. Your eyes haven’t been fully opened yet.”

The movie never really shows Dietrich getting to know the African American people in this church community except in the context of what he can do to teach them as a white person in a “theologist knows best” role. There are never any honest or meaningful conversations about racism in this movie. What “Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin.” has is racial condescension that doesn’t think it’s racial condescension.

By 1933, Dietrich is back in Germany with his family. He has become such a jazz aficionado, he plays jazz for his family to show off his knowledge of this new type of music that is exotic to his family. Dietrich also announces that he’s giving up his theology studies because, as he says,”In Harlem, I saw real faith.”

Dietrich is surprised and alarmed when he hears about the rise of the Nazi Party in Germany. And quicker than you can say “problematic and preachy movie,” Dietrich has become a pastor who gives blistering sermons that scold anyone in his congregation who directly or indirectly supports the Nazis. Dietrich is warned about the dangers of being an anti-Nazi activist, but he still carries on with this type of preaching.

“Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin” gives only surface-level depictions of the horrors of the Holocaust. The movie has more scenes of Dietrich being distressed by himself in a prison cell than scenes of persecuted Jewish people being sent to Nazi death camps. Any scene of Dietrich interacting with captured Jews on their way to a death camp is brief and superficial, like he’s just a pastor dropping in to give some comfort, but then he can easily go back to his own home because he has the privilege of being a white German Christian.

When Dietrich goes to England and back to New York City to visit, he is shown doing more preaching and rehearsing of speeches. He decides to return to Germany because he feels it’s the right thing to do to fight Nazism there. But even when Dietrich returns to Germany, he goes back into “preaching from the pulpit” mode and seems very aloof from the difficult activism that the real Dietrich was involved in with the Resistance movement against the Nazis.

Dietrich’s allies depicted in the movie include Bishop Martin Niemöller, who goes from being a skeptic of Dietrich to a supporter; adult Sabine, who has become the sibling who’s Dietrich’s closest friend since the death of their brother Walter; and Hans von Dohnányi (played by Flula Borg), who is married to Dietrich’s sister Christel (played by Jade Matthew). Hans is the one who comes up with the idea to assassinate Hitler. Dietrich is portrayed as someone who reluctantly goes along with the idea.

“Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin” shows Dietrich first and foremost as a recruiter for Christianity, with his Resistance activism in support of Jewish people often being secondary. When Dietrich rehearses an anti-Nazi speech, he talks about Jesus Christ and asks the intended recipients of the speech: “Will you follow him all the way to the cross?” It’s a speech that doesn’t take into account that you don’t have to be a Christian to be against Nazis.

Dietrich was obviously a Christian pastor, which undoubtedly influenced his religious views. But his brand of anti-Nazism has a somewhat condescending tone to Jewish people in this movie. No one in the movie is seen meeting with Jewish leaders to help fight the Nazis. Dietrich is only shown making plans with other Christians. And that in itself sums up the attitude of this misguided movie.

The fact of the matter is that people of many religions—as well as atheists and agnostics—joined forces to fight against Nazis during World War II. And this war against the Nazis was not just fought by white people but also by people of many different races. But you’d never know that factual history if you only believed what is presented in “Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin.”

The movie’s acting performances are adequate but offer nothing that deserves awards. The film editing and screenplay (which is filled with drab and trite dialogue) are so muddled and tiresome, even if this movie had been told in chronological order, it still has problems with its selective rewriting of World War II history as it related to Dietrich Bonhoeffer. The cinematography is dull and makes the movie look washed-out.

The epilogue to “Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin.” gives emotionally rousing captioned statements about the Holocaust and the evils of Nazism, but it’s told with a very biased religious perspective of Christianity being the main reason why the Nazis were defeated in World War II. “Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin.” might be praised by people who aren’t very knowledgeable of the real Dietrich Bonhoeffer and World War II history and just want to see a movie about a Christian pastor who preached against Nazism during World War II. The “assassin” part of this movie’s title is very misleading, so anyone expecting this film to depict assassin antics against Nazis should watch the 2009 Oscar-winning action flick “Inglourious Basterds” instead. And there are several documentaries and dramas about Dietrich Bonhoeffer that are far better than “Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin.”

Angel Studios will release “Bonhoeffer: Pastor. Spy. Assassin.” in U.S. cinemas on November 22, 2024. Sneak previews of the movie were held in U.S. cinemas on November 11, November 18, and November 20, 2024.

Review: ‘Alien: Romulus,’ starring Cailee Spaeny, David Jonsson, Archie Renaux, Isabela Merced, Spike Fearn and Aileen Wu

August 16, 2024

by Carla Hay

“Alien: Romulus”

Directed by Fede Alvarez

Culture Representation: Taking place in the year 2781, mostly in outer space, the sci-fi/action/horror film “Alien: Romulus” (part of the “Alien” movie franchise) features a racially diverse group of people (white, black, Asian, Latin) who are young space colonizers.

Culture Clash: During an unauthorized mission, the space travelers encounter an army of vicious and deadly alien creatures.

Culture Audience: “Alien Romulus” will appeal mainly to people who are fans of the “Alien” franchise and movies that skillfully blend suspense with science fiction and gory horror.

Xenomorph and Cailee Spaeny in “Alien: Romulus” (Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios)

After a slow and somewhat jumbled start, “Alien: Romulus” gets better as it goes along. It’s one of the most suspenseful and visually striking movies in the “Alien” franchise, with a nearly perfect mix of science fiction and horror. The movie leans into some nostalgia for the first two “Alien” movies, but it does so in a way that seems like the right amount of fan service instead of being lazy and pandering.

Written and directed by Fede Alvarez (who co-wrote the “Alien: Romulus” screenplay with Rodo Sayagues), “Alien: Romulus” is the type of franchise movie where viewers don’t need to see any of the other movies in the franchise. Viewers who don’t know anything about the best “Alien” movies—including the original 1979 “Alien” film and the 1986 sequel “Aliens,” starring Sigourney Weaver has chief heroine Ripley—might enjoy “Alien: Romulus” slightly more than viewers who already know what to expect.

The story is essentially the same as the first “Alien” movie: People are trapped on a spaceship with deadly alien creatures that are spawned from a “mother” alien, who’s the most dangerous of all. “Alien: Romulus” is at its weakest in the beginning of the movie, because it could have done a better job of establishing who these characters are. All of the principal “Alien: Romulus” characters make their first appearances in the “Alien” franchise in this movie.

In “Alien: Romulus” (which takes place in the year 2781), the main protagonist is Rain Carradine (played by Cailee Spaeny), who is obviously supposed to be the “new” Ripley. Rain has an adoptive brother Andy (played by David Jonsson), who is soon revealed to be an artificial person, also known as a synthetic. The movie has several scenes that show how there is human prejudice against synthetics, which is a commentary on how some humans perceive artificial intelligence.

Rain and Andy live on the Jackson Star Mining Colony on a planet far away from Earth. The personal backgrounds of almost all of the characters are very vague. The only things revealed about the backstories of Rain and Andy are that they grew up together, and Rain’s parents died three years ago of an unnamed lung disease. It’s a post-apocalyptic world where human survivors are looking for new planets to colonize.

Rain and Andy soon get pulled into a scheme with other young colonizers from Jackson Star Mining Colony to raid and steal items from a decommissioned space station consisting of two modules: Romulus and Remus. The other space travelers are compassionately brave Tyler (played by Archie Renaux), who has a mutual attraction to Rain; Kay (played by Isabel Merced), who is Tyler’s friendly sister; Bjorn (played by Spike Fearn), who is Tyler and Rain’s mean-spirited cousin; and androgynous Navarro (played by Aileen Wu), who will remind some people of the Private Vasquez character (played by Jenette Goldstein) in “Aliens.”

Without giving away too much information, it’s enough to say that “Alien: Romulus” has several plot developments that happen because of what type of module is inserted into Andy, whose actions are affected by the programming in each module. Bjorn is bitter that his parents were killed by a synthetic, so he mercilessly bullies Andy. Meanwhile, Kay has a big secret that she tells Rain, and she makes Rain promise not to tell anyone else.

Jonsson gives Andy a soulful personality for a being that is supposed to have no soul. The heart of the movie is the close sibling bond between Rain and Andy, who have loyalty to each other that gets tested at least once in the film. Spaeny does a very capable performance as the main hero. But is the performance instantly iconic, like Weaver’s depiction of Ripley? No.

“Alien: Romulus” has some very formulaic elements of a creature feature horror movie. And there are a few scenes with elements that are directly copied from “Alien” and “Aliens.” However, where “Alien: Romulus” really excels in the last 20 minutes, which has a few surprises and some of the best scenes in the film. “Alien Romulus” has no mid-credits or end-credits scene, but there’s no doubt that this movie was made with a sequel in mind.

20th Century Studios released “Alien: Romulus” in U.S. cinemas on August 16, 2024. The movie will be released as a special collectible VHS on December 3, 2024.

Review: ‘Rye Lane,’ starring David Jonsson and Vivian Oparah

April 2, 2023

by Carla Hay

“Rye Lane”

Directed by Raine Allen-Miller

Culture Representation: Taking place in London, the comedy film “Rye Lane” features a cast of white and black characters (with a few Asians) representing the working-class and middle-class.

Culture Clash: A man and a woman in their 20s, who have opposite personalities and have had recent romantic breakups with other people, meet by chance in a public restroom and start a banter-filled relationship that could turn into more than a friendship.

Culture Audience: “Rye Lane” will appeal primarily to fans of quick-paced romantic comedies that skillfully blend realistic and fantastical elements.

David Jonsson and Vivian Oparah in “Rye Lane” (Photo courtesy of Searchlight Pictures/Hulu)

“Rye Lane” takes the usual romantic comedy formula, gives it a witty spin, and drenches it in Great Britain’s vibrant South London culture. Vivian Oparah and David Jonsson give winning performances in this funny and endearing movie. “Rye Lane” is the type of romantic comedy that could charm viewers who don’t like most romantic comedies, as long as viewers who understand the English language are willing to tolerate the heavy London accents in the movie.

Directed by Raine Allen-Miller, “Rye Lane” (her feature-film directorial debut) brings a dynamic visual aesthetic that is very reminiscent of hip-hop videos of the mid-to-late 1990s: bright hues, fish-eye lens camera shots, and fantasy sequences interspersed with the main characters’ “reality.” (Olan Collardy is the cinematographer for “Rye Lane.”) This visual flair greatly complements the appealing “Rye Lane” screenplay, which was written by Nathan Bryon and Tom Melia. “Rye Lane” had its world premiere at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival.

“Rye Lane” (which takes place entirely in South London) begins with overhead views of the camera looking down at various people in toilet stalls in a unisex public restroom at a trendy art exhibit. One of the people in the stalls is a mild-mannered accountant in his mid-20s named Dom (played by Jonsson), who is privately weeping over a breakup he had three months ago with a girlfriend he had dated for six years. An outspoken woman, who’s about the same age as Dom, enters the toilet stall next to his stall during his heartbroken sobbing.

Her name is Yas (played by Oparah), which is short for Yasmin. Dom doesn’t know it yet, but Yas will soon become a part of his life. Yas notices that Dom is crying and tells him that she can hear him. A startled Dom says that Yas is in the men’s room, but Yas corrects him and says that the restroom is actually unisex. Yas peeks underneath the stall and sees the lower half of what Dom is wearing. An embarrassed Dom quickly leaves the restroom.

The art exhibit is for Dom’s friend Nathan Armstrong (played by Simon Manyonda), an avant-garde photographer whose current specialty is taking close-up photos of people’s body parts. For this particular exhibit, the photos are close-ups of people’s open mouths. It’s an interesting metaphor for this dialogue-driven movie, where the two protagonists get to know each other through snappy conversations that later turn into heartfelt revelations.

Dom is obviously still reeling from the breakup. He gets upset with Nathan when he finds out that Nathan had brunch at the home that Dom used to share with Dom’s ex-girlfriend Gia (played by Karene Peter). Dom later mentions that he and Nathan have been friends since they were teenagers. They also used to work together at Kentucky Fried Chicken. At this event, Nathan is hyper and more concerned about what people think about his art exhibit than whatever breakup blues that Dom is experiencing.

It doesn’t take long for Yas to find Dom in this exhibit space. She strikes up a conversation with him. Dom explains why he was crying in the restroom. Yas says she broke up with her most recent boyfriend Jules, also known as Julian (played by Malcolm Atobrah), about a month ago, because he cheated on her with his life coach Tabby (played by Alice Hewkin).

It turns out that Dom’s relationship with his ex-girlfriend Gia also ended because of infidelity. Dom tells Yas that he caught Gia cheating on him with his best friend Eric (played by Benjamin Sarpong-Broni). Dom found out that Eric and Gia were lovers during a video chat with Gia, when he saw a naked Eric in the background of the apartment where Dom and Gia lived. There’s a little more to the story about how Dom found out about this betrayal, but those are comedy details that won’t be revealed in this review.

In Dom’s first version of this breakup story, he tells Yas that after he found out about the cheating, he immediately stormed over to the apartment and gave Eric a beatdown. This scenario is shown in the movie. But then, Dom quickly admits that this version isn’t the truth. In reality, when Dom found out about this infidelity, he went to see a movie by himself and cried in the theater.

“Rye Lane” has several scenes where the characters tell their versions of the truth or express fantasies that come alive on screen. Dom and Yas continue their conversation after leaving the exhibit. She wants him to tell her about his life: “I’m interested in people who have messes,” Yas says. “Everyone has a mess.”

Dom says that, believe it or not, he always wanted to be an accountant. By contrast, his friends wanted to get rich and famous as “footballers or YouTube sensations.” He currently lives rent-free with his parents. Dom’s father (played by Andrew Francis) wanted Dom to be more athletic. Dom’s mother (played by Sandra Daley) is overprotective and pampers him by bringing meals to him in bedroom. His mother has fixation on making hard-boiled eggs.

Yas does not reveal much about her background, except to say that when she was a child, she wanted to be like Prince during his “Purple Rain” era. Yas tells Dom that she’s currently a fashion buyer for “an online brand you’ve never heard of,” and her dream is to become a costume designer. “I’ll get there eventually,” she says with wistfulness. Yas has a supportive best friend Cass (played by Poppy Allen-Quarmby), who makes only a few brief appearances in the movie,

During the conversations between Yas and Dom, it’s obvious that they have different personalities. Yas is bold, brash and fast-talking. Dom is a little timid, more hesitant about himself, and he thinks more carefully about how his words can affect someone’s feelings. Yas says she’s ready to move on from her recent breakup, while Dom isn’t so ready to get over his breakup.

Dom believes he’ll able to get closure by accepting an invitation to meet with Gia and Eric (who are now a couple) for dinner at the same restaurant where Dom and Gia used to go on romantic dates. Dom mentions the name of the restaurant to Yas. Yas gives her unsolicited opinion that Dom will be “rolling over like a bitch” if he has this meeting.

Still, Yas offers to be Dom’s date to help him get through this meeting. He politely declines the offer, and she seems slightly hurt by this rejection. When Dom reaches out to shake her hand and say goodbye, Yas flippantly tells Dom: “Good luck not having an extraordinary life.”

But since “Rye Lane” is a romantic comedy, Dom hasn’t seen the last of Yas. Shortly after this awkward dinner meeting begins, Yas suddenly shows up at the restaurant, sits down next to Dom, and pretends that she’s his new lover. And she doesn’t hold back on her sassiness and brutally honest opinions. It’s the beginning of an emotional roller coaster for Dom and Yas.

As good as the writing and direction are for “Rye Lane,” much of the movie’s liveliness comes from the believable chemistry between Jonsson and Oparah. It’s a case of “opposites attract” for Dom and Yas, but in a relatable way that will make viewers want to root for Yas and Dom to become a couple. “Rye Lane” also pokes some fun at working-class people who are social climbers and put on pretentious airs—as exemplified by Nathan and Jules, who makes very tacky art decorations and consider himself to be a high-end artist. Yas met Nathan because Nathan and Jules know each other, which is why Yas was invited to Nathan’s art exhibit, where she met Dom.

There’s a very contrived plot development of Yas and Dom trying to gain access to Jules’ home when he’s not there, because she wants to retrieve her vinyl album of A Tribe Called Quest’s “The Low End Theory” that she accidentally left behind in the breakup. The expected hijinks ensue, but “Rye Lane” still has some unexpected surprises. One of these surprises (that has no bearing on the plot) is an uncredited cameo by Colin Firth, as a food server named Colin at a Latino fast-food place called “Love Gua’ctually,” which is “Rye Lane’s” cheeky nod to Firth’s 2003 romantic comedy/drama “Love Actually” and the guacamole served at this fast-food place. Like all entertaining romantic comedies that resonate with audiences, “Rye Lane” has plenty of amusing moments but also shows the beauty of what happens when people open up and show their true selves when falling in love.

Hulu premiered “Rye Lane” on March 31, 2023. Searchlight Pictures released the move in the United Kingdom on March 17, 2023.