Chosen Family

Romantic Comedy

Available on VOD: 21 november 2024

Director: Heather Graham

Cast: Heather Graham (Austin Powers, Boogie Nights, On a Wing and a Prayer), Julia Stiles (Orphan First Kill, Jason Bourne), John Brotherton (Fast & Furious 7, The Conjuring), Thomas Lennon (We're the Millers, What to Expect When You're Expecting, A Very Harold & Kumar 3D Christmas)

Ann (Heather Graham) is a yoga teacher struggling to achieve inner peace despite the fact her family is driving her crazy and her dating life is miserable. She doesn’t know how to say no and wants to fix everyone’s problems. In the meantime, Ann struggles to save her sister (Julia Stiles) from addiction with disastrous results. With so many expectations on her, Ann leans on her good friends Max (Thomas Lennon), Frances, Roz and Ella for support. They in turn set her up with a cute divorced dad Steve (John Brotherton), who has an adorable 7 year old daughter. When Ann meets Steve’s daughter Lily, she is immediately smitten. But Lily does not feel the same, and as Steve and Ann get closer, Lily grows increasingly jealous and competitive. When Lily starts to misbehave, Ann sees that Lily can do no wrong in Steve’s eyes - she’s in the battle of her life with a 7 year old.  

• Filmgatereviews.com: Chosen Family is a funny and thoughtful look at adult relationships.
• Gazettely.com: Heartfelt lead performances from Graham and Stiles.

The End of Sex

Comedy, Romantic Comedy

Available on VOD: 6 juli 2023

Director: Sean Garrity

Cast: Jonas Chernick (The Border, Degrassi, An Awkward Sexual Adventure), Emily Hampshire (Schitt's Creek, Mother!)

A married couple is making increasingly wild attempts to recapture the magic of their now-routine marriage. Husband Josh and his wife Emma have an empty house for one week. With their daughters off at a winter-break sleepaway camp, they attempt to recapture the magic of their now-comfortable marriage with increasingly wild developments, kicking off with a less-than-satisfactory marital romp and a run-in with a couple they know who are separating.

• Digitaljournal.com: Funny because it feels so true. Does an excellent job of embracing and showcasing the humour of their situation. Chernick and Hampshire deliver excellent performances, nailing the chemistry essential to the narrative's success, as well as exhibiting spot-on comedic timing.
• Screenzealots.com: Finds humor in clumsy sexual encounters and increasingly uncomfortable situations. Impeccably cast, with believeable actors playing equally credible characters.
• Skonmovies.com: Harmless fun about a couple trying to spice up their marriage.
• Shockya.com: Fun and provides a humorous look at the way that marriage, and any relationship, can change over time.
• Solzyatthemovies.com: This is the sort of film where the comedy just writes itself, especially with the situations that they find themselves in. A proven winner for any distributor acquiring the film out of Toronto (!)
• Thatshelf.com: Chernick and Hampshire display great chemistry throughout. Their performances allow the characters to feel like relatable people rather than caricatures. A sharp and refreshing comedy, The End of Sex is a perfect date night flick.

Hit by Lightning

Comedy, Crime, Romantic Comedy

Available on VOD: 15 december 2015

Director: Ricky Blitt

Cast: Stephanie Szostak (Iron Man Three, We Bought a Zoo, Dinner for Schmucks), Jon Cryer (Two and a Half Men, Due Date, Stay Cool), Will Sasso (Movie 43, The Three Stooges)

RICKY MILLER a sweet 40-plus manager of a Denny's type restaurant gets his prayers answered when he joins a dating site and meets DANITA – an impossibly beautiful woman who shares all his interests. He soon learns there's just one little catch – she's married and he has to kill her evil husband. Ricky shrugs – there's always going to be SOME baggage when you're both around 40. Ricky's best friend SETH finds out her monster husband is actually an ex-Rabbi who proves to be generous and affable when they finally meet him. Ricky is torn. Is Danita telling him the truth? Or is Seth right and she's a femme fatale, like Kathleen Turner in BODY HEAT, who's playing Ricky?

• LATimes.com: An offbeat rom-com that ventures down the film-noir path, "Hit by Lightning" manages to make dark comedy fresh by combining two formulas. Cryer and Sasso have impeccable comedic call and response that never skip a beat, which makes the film a pleasure.
• Blu-ray.com: Hit by Lightning features a bravely unglamorous performance from Cryer, who does away with traditional tricks of screen vanity to play Ricky as a soured, balding sad sack with no hope for a romantic future. The screenplay actually has some fun with the character's hair loss, watching Ricky trying to dye his way out of personal issues, hoping to appeal to Danita through the art of illusion. Cryer's comic timing remains sitcom-tight and his interplay with Sasso contributes to the picture's periodic highlights, creating a believable bond with this bullying best friend.
• Wlswarts.blogspot.nl: If one was going to cast a weak-willed patsy character, Jon Cryer is as good a choice as you can get and he delivers exactly that performance.

The Last Five Years

Drama, Musical, Romantic Comedy

Available on VOD: 2 november 2015

Director: Richard LaGravenese

Cast: Anna Kendrick (Twilight Saga, Pitch Perfect 1 & 2, Up in the Air, Into the Woods, 50/50), Jeremy Jordan (Smash, Joyful Noise), Bettina Bresnan (Vamps), Charly Bivona (Cymbeline)

Cathy and Jamie’s five-year relationship is full of passion and heartache. As novelist Jamie is propelled to the top of the New York literary scene, Cathy struggles in low paid acting jobs, and their diverging careers prove too much for their young love to handle.

• Variety.com: It's easy to fall in love with Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan in this heart-breaking musical two-hander, as they retrace a love affair from opposite ends. It's he sang/she sang as a Gotham couple moving in opposite directions lead us through half a decade of ups and downs in "The Last 5 Years," Jason Robert Brown's beautifully written Off Broadway tuner. Two terrific lead performers — and what a pair they make!
• Cinemagazine.nl: Kendrick en de liedjes houden ‘The Last Five Years’ met gemak overeind.
• Redeyechicago.com: Instantly enjoyable and eventually crushing, "The Last Five Years" is a musical for people (like me) who can't stand musicals but are open to ones that are intimate, smart and surprising rather than loud, overdone and obvious. It's remarkably perceptive about love and commitment, anchored by two stars who only make the excellent songs better. Shockingly good.
• New York Magazine: The camera moves with heightened sensitivity, as if on currents of emotion, and Kendrick is infinitely winning. She's that rare thing, a movie star with a trained soprano.
• NYPost.com: A great showcase for Kendrick. So utterly wonderful that this adaptation of an off-Broadway musical deserves better than a token theatrical release to support its distribution via video-on-demand.
• Avclub.com: The Last Five Years provides Anna Kendrick the musical showcase she deserves.
• VillageVoice.com: The words are sharp, the melodies memorable, and the performances a beauty. This Last Five Years might not have the penetrating clarity of Brown's original show, but it offers miles and piles of compensation.
• Filmfracture.com: As far as Hollywood musicals go, they don't get much better than The Last Five Years. Those who don't mind most of the story being told through song will enjoy it thoroughly. The Last Five Years is a unique romance movie for the jaded and heartbroken as well as the hopelessly in love.
• Slantmagazine.com: Whether wryly funny, annotating Jamie's rendition of "The Schmuel Song" with snide remarks, or stirring, as in the lovely "Still Hurting," Kendrick manages to convey both the nostalgic and the regretful notes.
• TheIndepoendentCritic.com: While Kendrick nails the vocals, she's also got a strong cinematic sensibility about her and understands how to make it all work on the big screen. Kendrick infuses Cathy with all the heart and soul and remorse and regret that we'd hope for.
• Reelfilm.com: Kendrick delivering a knockout performance that's made all-the-more-impressive by the realization that she sings almost all of her dialogue.
• Blu-ray.com: Anna Kendrick and Jeremy Jordan share a closely-knit chemistry in the film. She's particularly strong, capable of displaying a broad range of emotion not only through her lyrical vocalizations but in the eyes that, scene to scene and moment to moment, convey her feelings as strongly as, if not more deeply than, the lyrics. Whether deep, loving affection; unbridled passion; growing unease and discomfort; anger and resentment; or unhinged sorrow; she delivers a fully capable, emotive, and nuanced effort as a person who, in the span of five years, journeys through a familiar arc of high spirits brought by love but slowly pushed down to the lowest feelings of despair.
• Examiner.com: At its heart, the film is a pure and true love story, all involved give everything to make it a success.

There's Always Woodstock

Comedy, Romantic Comedy

Available on VOD: 17 augustus 2015

Director: Rita Merson

Cast: Ryan Guzman (Step Up 4 Miami Heat, Pretty Little Liars), Katey Sagal (Married With Children, Sons of Anarchy), Brittany Snow (Pitch Perfect, John Tucker Must Die), Allison Miller (17 Again, Terra Nova), Jason Ritter (Parenthood), Rumer Willis (90210)

There's Always Woodstock is a music infused romantic comedy about a frustrated musician, Catherine Brown who finds herself living a life she never imagined. Stuck at a dead end job in New York City at Abundant Records, a mega music record label with no soul. When Catherine is fired from her job and finds her fiancé in the shower with another women she decides she is going to sell her engagement ring and move back into her family home in Woodstock, reinvent herself and get back to what she has always wanted to do, write music and perform.

Returning to Woodstock for Catherine is bitter sweet. She hadn't been back since the death of her parents when she was only 4 years old. Catherine quickly finds herself in a rut and unable to write music. While exploring the town she meets and befriends a bartender and barista, Emily. After a drunken karaoke performance, Catherine stumbles out of the bar only to have a chance encounter with Noah, the resident town Doctor. There is an immediate attraction but Catherine is in no position to start dating. Little by little, Catherine starts to find herself, write music, and fall in love with Noah.

Just as it all seems to be coming together for her, everything begins to unravel once her fiancé comes back into her life and Abundant Records makes an offer to sign her as an artist. As Catherine struggles to reconcile her two vastly different worlds she ends up not only finding herself but also "true love."

• Village Voice: The rom-com elements don't always work, and the conclusion is a bit pat, but Always Woodstock is never less than charming and funny along the way.

You, Me and Him

Romantic Comedy

Available on VOD: 1 februari 2018

Director: Daisy Aitkens

Cast: David Tennant (Broadchurch, Doctor Who, Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire), Lucy Punch (Into the Woods, Bad Teacher, Dinner for Schmucks, A Good Old Fashioned Orgy), Faye Marsay (Game of Thrones, Pride), Simon Bird (The Inbetweeners, Friday Night Dinner), Gemma Jones (Bridget Jones Trilogy, Veep)

YOU, ME AND HIM is a witty romantic comedy set in middle class England about two female lovers, one a career driven lawyer (Lucy Punch) and the other a fun loving, pot smoking layabout (Faye Marsay); and their annoying Casanova neighbour (David Tennant).  While neither woman ever wanted children, both end up pregnant, creating conflicts that cause each to re-examine their outlook on life and the relationship. YOU, ME AND HIM brings humour, controversy, tears and surprises that will keep audiences in fits of laughter from the opening credits to the final curtain.

• Cinemagazine.nl: Wat overigens ook heel verrassend is, is dat ‘You, Me and Him’ ook nog weet te raken op verschillende momenten. Dit valt wederom te wijten aan sterk spel, vooral van Faye Marsay die haar stoere en vrije karakter ook een zachte en emotionele kant weet te geven. Hele review hier.
• cgiii.com: You, Me & Him jogs on at a sprightly pace with laughs aplenty and will, undoubtedly, warm the cockles of your heart. David Tennant...do more comedy! Daisy Aitkens...write and direct more films!
• eyeforfilm.com.uk: an honest portrait of the complexity of real life relationships as many people experience them – something mainstream cinema needs more of.
• Midlandmovies.com: The film is overall lightweight but takes a meaningful look at the serious issues of LGBT love (not a “large sandwich” as the film jokes) and the multifaceted intricacies of modern relationships. With three wonderful showings from Punch, Marsay and Tennant, the film is an enjoyable romp with plenty of laughs without forgetting the affectionate support needed for mothers, fathers and partners.
• TheHollywoodNews.xom: You, Me and Him is quite the delight; it’s hilarious and charmingly executed with enough heart and passion behind its story to keep you smiling and keep you entertained for its runtime.