Newness (2017)

Newness feels like a love story wired directly into the anxious pulse of modern dating—tender one moment, brutally honest the next—capturing how connection can spark in a swipe and still ache for something deeper. Drake Doremus directs with an intimate, lived-in immediacy, letting Los Angeles glow and bruise around two disarmingly human performances from Nicholas Hoult and Laia Costa, who make their characters’ need, curiosity, and self-sabotage feel uncomfortably recognizable. The film’s electricity comes from how it refuses to romanticize or condemn its lovers, instead watching them test the limits of what commitment can mean when temptation is always one notification away. It’s candid about sex and emotional messiness, so it’s not for viewers wanting a traditional, tidy romance—but if you’re open to a provocative, compassionate drama about how people try (and fail, and try again) to be together now, it’s hard to shake.

Newness is clearly trying to be a raw, up-to-the-minute snapshot of app-era intimacy—messy, impulsive, and hungry for connection in Los Angeles. The problem is it often feels more like a carefully constructed thesis about modern dating than a story that naturally unfolds, so the emotional beats can land as predictable rather than revelatory. Drake Doremus gets some believable, close-up chemistry from Nicholas Hoult and Laia Costa, and the frank sexuality will feel honest to some viewers, but the pacing can sag and the “boundary-pushing” starts to feel like repetition instead of escalation. If you’re looking for a romance with real surprise, deeper insight, or characters who evolve beyond their talking points, this may test your patience—even if you appreciate its intention to be unfiltered.