Time Is Up (2021)

Time Is Up has a pulpy, earnest rush that takes the familiar “opposites attract” setup and jolts it with real urgency, the kind that makes every glance and half-finished sentence feel like it matters. Elisa Amoruso gives the story a sleek, youthful sheen—sunlit halls, late-night confessions, and the hum of possibility—while grounding it in the pressure of expectations, family fractures, and the quiet terror of wasting your own life. Bella Thorne brings a sharp, tightly-wound intelligence to Vivien, and Benjamin Mascolo plays Roy with bruised vulnerability, so their chemistry lands less like a gimmick and more like two people finally being seen. It’s not a subtle art-house romance and it does lean into teen-drama intensity (with some profanity and mild sexual content), but if you’re in the mood for a heartfelt, time-tinged love story that wants you to feel something now, it’s an easy yes.

Time Is Up wants to be a glossy, fate-meets-second-chance teen romance where an accident forces two very different students to actually look at their lives and choices. The problem is it often plays like a music-video version of a drama: pretty faces, nice locations, big emotions on paper, but stiff performances and clunky dialogue keep the characters from feeling real. The stakes are supposed to be urgent, yet the screenplay rarely builds genuine tension, so scenes that should hit hard can land flat. If you’re looking for a sharp, believable romance with emotional payoff, this may waste your time; if you just want an easy, good-looking YA melodrama and can overlook awkward writing, you might get some comfort-viewing out of it.