It’s been a great year for youthful romantic comedies already this year (if you haven’t watched To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before do yourself a favor and do it now), and there’s still lot of time left for it to get better. One that has had a lot of people buzzing since it debuted at SXSW is The New Romantic, which features some of the young stars of Riverdale, Jane the Virgin, and more, but is led by rising star Jessica Barden, who I’ll freely admit is my reason for interest.
Barden is probably best known for her role on dark comedy series The End of the F***ing World, but she’s been a favorite of mine since her small roles in The Lobster and Far from the Madding Crowd. The New Romantic marks the directorial debut by Carly Stone, and the story it tells is a familiar one, but with a modern edge. Barden plays a college sex columnist with a boring love life, who decides to flip the paradigm and date an older man. The film co-stars Riverdale‘s Camila Mendes and Hayley Law, Brett Dier of Jane the Virgin, and Avan Jogia of Twisted.
The New Romantic hits theaters on November 9th and VOD four days later.
