Newness

This movie, to me, is not about how they meet, go through life or the open relationship. It is about that moment we always look for, the instant chemistry, which makes us euphoric and therefore happy. That bubble that everything is oke, everything is in line and I love somebody and that person loves me back in that moment.

The way this movie is shot, the high level of acting, it is as if you are watching your own life in some way. I think everybody can take moments from it and see what moments happen in their own life and how they react.

It is not intended as a movie to learn from, but just to hold a mirror up. It is not good or bad, just how we walk through life. To me, it is a good thing to keep realizing it.

If I had to pick one thing that stout out, I would say; that moment the bubble bursts. When you start to talk to each other and learn more about their way of thinking. At that point you are going to hear something you don't like and in an instant, your face changes and you need to deal with that emotion. That's when the euphoria stops and you try to get it back.

This review shows that this movie won't be for everybody, but watch past the first 10 minutes and get taken away by the emotions and reflect on yourself.

For a movie that has relationship written all over it in the "modern era" (that is with cell phones and apps to find "love"), this really could be called a modern day love story. So while you could compare it to "Love", this is not as explicit as that (though you will have some nudiy in this too), but gets more involved into the characters.

One set up shows closeness physically, but characters being as far apart as possible. It could have gone wrong, too cliche, but the symbolism of it really hits home (no pun intended). The movie generally has quite a few themes, with "newness" being one of them. The pleasure one has to enjoy that. But even with one character living in the past, the connection to "new" is still there. The other character may not want anything newer, but that plays into the theme too. Especially when things get mixed up.

The movie tries to analyze a bit and give us a look into the psyche, but it not a psychological study. You can read a couple of things into it, but it does try to stay in the drama department and the general flow of the movie. Good themes, good acting and a good script about a ... new sort of love story

I almost made the mistake of switching the movie off 15 minutes in. Thankfully I didn't. Laia Costa in a very emotional scene captivated me as she did for the whole movie and the story finally really began. Even though we get obvious unsubtle punches against facebook and tinder it is not really about these technologies because they are just that. They don't force us to do anything. It is about generation "swipe left if you are bored". It is about running away from conflict thus running away from real relationships. Relationships are messy. They always have been always will be. But what makes them deep the work you put in. The best quote of the movie nails it: "love is two people not giving up on each other" as I didn't give up on this movie 15 minutes in being rewarded at the end.

Movies like these don't come along very often. This is my third Doremus film (after Like Crazy and Equals) and while Equals probably remains on the top of my list, Newness comes in at a close second. Newness explores the dangers and thrills of online dating in an urban world, where distractions are easily found and easier to be pursued. In the midst of it all, Martin and Gabriela are trying to find their way as a couple. The movie's appeal comes from its splendid directing and cinematography, which was already outstanding in Equals. The wash of hues, the angles, everything fits like a glove and helps underline the vivid and thrilling nature of the movie's theme. It feels organic, authentic and vigorous, not least due to the unadulterated performances of its main cast - Nicholas Hoult and Laia Costa (who was already brilliant in Vicotria) have chemistry coming up the wazoo, it's almost ridiculous. This movie took me on an emotional roller coaster; it's definitely not for everyone. And it's not a perfect movie by any means. Watching this movie simply felt a bit like falling in love, which - in my book - always seems like a good thing.

Nicholas Hoult and Laia Costa are very attractive young people compulsively using a dating app and having several minute stands. They match one night ... after each had already had a previously unsuccessful hook-up ... and meet for drinks, but hit it off so well that they don't just immediately have sex. Soon they are in a committed relationship, but familiarity creeps in and they conveniently cheat on each other on the same night. They realize that while they really do love each other, they are also really drawn to the rush of new relationships, so they decide to try an open relationship. Each is allowed to pursue other people as long as they are completely honest with each other?

So ... do you think that works out well for them?

This movie has some things going for it. Hoult and Costa are really quite good ... Costa especially ... and neither will disappoint in the film's numerous and quite explicit sex scenes. The style, impressionistic with very close, hand-held jittery cam, makes the early sequences pretty exciting, and the film goes quite some way towards recreating the rush of physical attraction and first love.

This relationship is not very interesting though. The really quite charming actors are not given characters that ever have much of interest to say, so it's tough to invest much in their relationship. Once the open relationship starts going south and Danny Huston enters the film, you're almost routing for the Huston/Costa pairing to prevail since he's actually given decent things to say. The film reaches a conclusion, but it's not a very compelling one since you don't really care about this couple and the issues that drove them into an open relationship are never really resolved anyway.