‘Newness’ Is A Pretty Reminder, Just In Case you Forgot For A Sec, That Dating Is The Worst

Hide your phone somewhere safe when you watch director Drake Doremus’ latest film, Newness. Starring Nicholas Hoult and Laia Costa, the romance follows sexy LA millennials as they explore their relationship: from swiping on a dating app (and matching, hooray!), to falling in love, to getting bored much sooner than expected, to testing out an open relationship and all the consequences that come along with it. Newness will simultaneously trigger that unconscious, irresistible desire to flip through the faces of fellow lonely people on your phone, while also creating an overwhelming urge to throw your phone right out the window, or perhaps into an ocean. Either way, this movie captures, almost too well, the frustration of being a young adult trying to find a partner to connect with, or at the very least, as Costa’s Gabi states, someone to make her come.

Hoult’s Martin is actually not quite as bad of many of the men you’ll encounter on these apps, especially one this handsome. While the two meet under the agreement that they’d simply hook up that night, “no strings”, they had both come from underwhelming dates with other people earlier in the night. Pre-sex drinks turn into a romantic night of canoodling and actually getting to know each other emotionally, before physically — which doesn’t even happen until after they’ve closed down the bar, had a late night snack, and watched the sun come up. As with previous films such as Like Crazy and Equals (which also starred Hoult and Kristen Stewart), Doremus’ expert ability to capture those real, raw moments on film of what it truly feels like to be falling for someone shines. These two, a pharmacist and physical therapy assistant, radiate an immediate attraction, which quickly becomes that urgent, necessary need for their bodies to be touching at all times, clothed or not. They’re playful with each other, they like to do that soft caressing thing, and they listen to what the other has to say. Could this be the attentive lover she was looking for and the woman to make him feel like he’s not just a “dildo attached to a warm body”?

Right off the bat, Gabi is honest about her ability to get bored easily, and her obsession with “constant newness.” But that doesn’t prevent these two from doing that thing where they learn about the other person while glancing around their apartment, or showering together, or, spending the day flirting at a museum. Hello, she should’ve known she had a special one on her hands when he made her a post-coital breakfast of avocado toast and scrambled eggs!

Doremus employs his signature, close up shots of the couple as they have sex, cuddle, and meet each other’s friends, that succeeds in making you feel like you’re right there with them and experiencing it all the same way. This style draws you in as a viewer, makes you more invested in this relationship, and gives you that same dreamy feeling that you can’t help but be sucked in and won over with. It also applies an intensity to the way this story is told, whether you’re a swiping single yourself or you’ve luckily avoided the dating apps recently or altogether (you lucky bastard). Although, you just might find them intriguing as the couple create their own secret sexy game where they act as voyeurs, watching each other flirt and go on dates with other people, that gets them so damn hot and bothered they practically jump each others bones in the car ride home.

This leads to testing the waters of an open relationship, after the boredom of monogamy and all that comes with it overtakes Martin and Gabi. After all, meeting the parents and discovering facts about your partner’s past is rarely an aphrodisiac! Despite the alluring appeal of this, the relationship expectedly starts to devolve from there, as they each chase (and indulge) in the people that had been occupying their thoughts. But duh, we all know an open relationship leads to a bigger disaster than anything going on in that Geostorm movie.

Written by Ben York Jones, Newness offers an accurate portrayal of modern millennial dating habits, without quite commenting on the apps, the indecisiveness, the insatiability, and hookup culture as a whole. It’s simply understood that all of these elements of the dating process are present and they’re continually at play. Doremus’ direction in the first act keeps the action as dizzying and fun as it feels to meet someone new and exciting, just as the second and third acts slow a bit to feel as confusing and frustrating as the actions playing out on-screen. Hoult and Costa give sweet and charismatic performances here, and there’s a nice love story underneath it all, but just as it is in real life, the swiping and the sex on the side make it too murky to fully enjoy.

Newness is fun at the beginning, as most relationships are. But Doremus’ style gives the film such a documentary feel, it’s hard to remember this is actually a fictional, sexy drama. Instead, it misses the chance to become an escape, and ends up being a constant reminder that love can be a bummer, totally confusing and heartbreaking and sad at times, and maybe not even worth it at all. In that way, the film stays true to its topic. Newness won’t be a match for everyone, but for those feeling open to it, go ahead and swipe right.

Where to watch Newness