2025 Sundance Film Festival Movie Review: Oh, Hi

It feels like every year at Sundance I see a movie that would have been better off being a short film rather than a feature. A film that has an interesting concept and a great beginning only for it to run out of steam rather quickly, leaving us with what feels like an unfinished film. At the 2025 Sundance Film Festival that film was Sophie Brooks’s Oh, Hi, a romantic comedy that has a spectacular first act, but whose plot becomes painfully thin very quickly, turning the film into a redundant and unfunny mess.

Iris (Molly Gordon) and Isaac (Logan Lerman) are newly dating and taking their first romantic weekend trip together. The weekend seems to be off to a great start. They buy strawberries, the house is gorgeous, they have a nice dinner and enjoy each other’s company with a bottle of wine. But then a simple case of miscommunication and misunderstanding during a sexual activity quickly turns their romantic getaway into a weekend of chaos.

As mentioned above, I loved the first act of the film. Brooks, who co-wrote the film with Gordon, does a nice job of establishing the newness of Iris and Isaac’s relationship. From them asking each other simple questions like what their favorite movie is, to the strawberry vendor checking out Isaac in front of Iris, and Isaac giving a wry smile of enjoyment while Iris stays quiet with judgmental eyes. You can tell this is a new relationship and that both are having a good time, particularly Iris, who you can immediately tell wants this relationship to work. Gordon and Lerman have excellent chemistry and perfectly play some of the more awkward moments of a new relationship.

The inciting event, where Iris finds out she sees her and Isaac in a different way than Isaac does, all while Isaac is consensually handcuffed to the bed, is a simple but intriguing twist. It isn’t anything crazy like somebody dying or one of them being associated with a crime boss, but enough of a twist that makes you intrigued for the events to come and wondering how the characters are going to get out of this situation.

But when Iris, a woman desperate for love, finds out that Isaac may not like her as much as she likes him, a fuse snaps in her and the weekend quickly turns from romantic and sweet to Gen Z Misery. Iris keeps digging herself into a bigger hole, keeping Isaac handcuffed to the bed and refusing to let him leave until she can convince him that he likes her and wants to date her. The convincing includes her telling him her life story and performing a talent show of some kind, none of which work, so she keeps him tied to the bed, even though it is now officially kidnapping. Iris calls her friend Max (Geraldine Viswanathan) and her husband Kenny (John Reynolds) to help her out and it just makes matters worse, ultimately leading Max and Iris to perform a witchcraft ceremony to erase Isaac’s memory. The characters that started fresh, funny, and charming dissolve into stupid, unlikable, and psychotic, save for Isaac, who is simply just trying to get freed from the handcuffs.

Oh, Hi could have been an effective short film. The plot is interesting, and the beginning of the shenanigans is entertaining. But trying to expand this into a feature film was ultimately a mistake and turns Oh, Hi into a thin and uninteresting film with stupid characters.

Oh, Hi premiered in the Premieres category at the 2025 Sundance Film Festival.

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