Never Been Chris'd (2023) -
The two lead girls, Naomi (Janel Parrish) and Liz (Pascal Lamothe-Kipnes) were a bit much right from the start, as were Chris' friend group and all of the parents.
Naomi and Liz got progressively worse as the film moved on and I couldn't work out how Chris (Tyler Hynes) would ever fall for either of them. He was far too cool a character to be involved with any of the rest of them. But thank God for him, because we all know that I wouldn't have made it to the end of this film without Tyler's charming good looks and cheeky suaveness. Ultimately he was far too talented to be in this film surrounded by such terrible co-stars too. He was so effortless compared to everyone else's forced enthusiasm and extreme deliveries. They were all "On" all of the time and what I believe the kids call "Extra" and not in a good way.
I definitely thought about turning it off whenever Tyler wasn't on screen.
In the beginning I kept expecting some magic wish granting old lady to appear and give the girls a chance to go back in time and change things, because it seemed to be going that way, so it was a surprise that it ended up being just a constant stream of reuniting with people from high school when the two girls went home (To their small town) for Christmas whilst hoping to hear whether their app would get funding.
I did however like the fact that for the most part it was unclear who the gorgeous Chris would end up with and I was actually hoping that he would turn out to be gay so that the story would be all about the girls friendship being tested instead, just for something brand new from this genre. Although I did appreciate that this was a differently styled storyline anyway.
I also liked the inclusion of Hannukkah celebrations which wasn't forced and explained some of the festival's details and actually helped to make the film more festive and Christmassy somehow, with a generally warm and family orientated vibe of celebration and food.
The two ladies faced some decisions about their future as the film progressed and what they would do about their mutual attraction to Chris. This caused some obvious friction, but actually made the film less silly, because they were finally behaving like adults.
I enjoyed the general premise, but I felt that it could have been delivered a lot better and that some tweaks might have made the story even more solid, but in the end it was Tyler that saved it, because I would never have stuck all the way through it for just the giggly girls.
5.59/10.
