Voicemails for Isabelle review – Netflix romcom picks creepy over cute

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Zoey Deutch and Nick Robinson stumble in this mushy, overlong story of a woman leaving voicemails for her dead sister There’s a fine line between romantic comedy and creepy thriller, and while redefining the genre’s lovelorn leads as often incredibly oddball stalkers is nothing new (see the Sleepless in Seattle trailer recut as a horror movie 20 years ago), an online deluge of memes and thinkpieces have elevated post-movie bar jokes to commonly accepted theory. Some film-makers have slowly tried to catch up and capitalise – last year’s dark comedy I Love You Forever showed how epic acts of romance can be rooted in manipulation while a great deal of what makes current box office record-breaker Obsession so effective is its horror movie perversion of the day-to-day realities of all-consuming true love. Netflix’s latest romcom Voicemails for Isabelle is made with some awareness of how unsettling its premise is, as if it was originally written in the 2000s and then dusted off and tweake...
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Band Four review – Hong Kong goes indie as musical family get the band back together

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Three generations of a talented family reunite unexpectedly, but there’s little surprising about their subsequent journey, despite its undeniable charms

You’d have to have a heart of brick to take against this earnest musical drama from Hong Kong about a single parent in an indie band dealing with her failed rocker dad suddenly walking back into her life (after leaving 20 years ago when she was little). It’s a warm and watchable valentine to music and starting afresh. But I did find something a bit make-believe and naive in its feelgood message about the power of music to heal old wounds; the idea that a sentimental chord or two could strum away the kind of pain and resentment it can take years of therapy to work through.

Cantopop star Kay Tse plays Cat, lead singer of Band Four, and single mum to pint-sized drumming prodigy Riley (Rondi Chan). Cat nursed her own mum through years of illness, and it’s at the funeral that her dad King makes an appearance – all of five foot nothing, a ponytail, rock star sunglasses and leather jacket. Real-life musician Teddy Robin Kwan plays it beautifully; beneath the swagger there’s an unmistakable air of genuine regret. King is back to make amends to Cat and he’s got a surprise: a teenage daughter, her half-sister. Cat is fuming but King shamelessly ingratiates himself with little Riley, who is delighted by his new grandpa and auntie.

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