Oh, Hi! Review: Who Are You Calling Crazy?

With Oh, Hi!, Sophie Brooks masterfully flips the romantic comedy genre on its head, astutely painting modern dating as the wild west.

Gone are the days of slowly falling for your best friend or realizing you can’t stand your worst enemy because, unbeknownst to you, you’re actually completely in love with them. The modern dating scene has truly become the wild west and gotten far enough out of hand to require a completely new vocabulary in order to fully explain one’s dating status. With the influx of dating apps turning potential suitors into endless options and the nauseating amount of “pre-relationship” titles you have to earn to work your way up to being “official” with your partner, I highly doubt our most coveted romcom couples would have ended up together if they had met in the present day. 

In Oh, Hi!, Brooks completely embraces the nuanced, messy and confusing state of modern romance, expertly reflecting the maddening current dating climate and offering insight on how we are approaching relationships all wrong. 

Oh, Hi! centers on Iris (Molly Gordon, of The Bear), who is embarking on her first weekend away with her boyfriend Isaac (Logan Lerman, of Bullet Train). After several months of dating, Iris and Isaac are escaping New York City for the weekend to relax at a remote house upstate. With a beautiful rental house, an easy and playful rapport and plenty of sex, the first day of this trip could not be going any better. 

That night, Isaac makes Iris a gorgeous meal and the two are able to connect on an even deeper level over a few glasses of wine. Feeling spontaneous and wanting to shake things up, Iris suggests the two of them utilize the BDSM restraints they had found earlier in the bedroom closet. While she gives being in the restraints a try, she ultimately decides it’s not something she wants to do and, wanting to keep the moment alive, Isaac offers to be the one put in them. 

After they have sex, Iris admits she never thought going away with a boyfriend and being with someone in this capacity would ever feel this easy. This confession immediately confuses Isaac as he tells Iris the two are definitely not in a relationship. In fact, Isaac isn’t even looking for a relationship right now. 

This startling reveal ignites a massive fight between the two of them, ending in Iris storming off, leaving IsaacIssac to spend the night in the restraints. While Isaac eventually nods off, Iris stays up all night drinking and poring over every moment of their relationship that has transpired over the past few months. By morning, Iris is emboldened to keep Isaac restrained in order to try and convince him why the two of them should be together. 

Brooks’s rom-com gone wrong is an absurdist odyssey into the nitty-gritty of modern dating politics. It reflects the audience’s worst relationship fears and deepest insecurities in a way that makes them feel both seen, understood and validated.

Iris thinks she’s done it. She thinks Isaac has saved her from the nightmarish modern dating landscape full of dead-end (and only minorly amusing) dating app conversations and first dates full of feigned interests. She’s played the cool girl expertly and crafted the perfect version of herself to present to Isaac so that he will fall for her.

When she realizes all the time and effort she put into trying to make things official with Isaac were in vain, she snaps. And the film begs to ask, “Who could blame her?!”. Obviously the way she is coping with Isaac’s rejection is quite literally criminal, but the endless and obligatory cycle of “talking stages”, “situationships,” and “casual noncommittal relationships” is enough to drive anyone to the brink of insanity. 

Oh, Hi! points out the irony of how the dating world has never had more accessible descriptive vocabulary to explain every minute nuance to a relationship and still this generation cannot seem to be able to describe what it is they want. Iris likes Isaac and Isaac likes Iris, the rest should be simple and yet it is not. 

Brooks puts her characters in these extreme circumstances to accentuate how far we have to be pushed in the modern dating scene to be honest with one another. Once Iris has effectively trapped Isaac, all the filters she’s put up are stripped away. She goes from being perfectly put together to half-dressed and covered in her makeup from the night before. She no longer cares about trying to match how nonchalant he is about the relationship; she needs answers as to why she isn’t good enough for him to want to date her. 

However, for as much as the film presents the ridiculous issues with modern romance, it offers a glimmer of empathy to those of us suffering through it. It validates the perpetual state of relationship-based anxiety that has a way of permeating our self-esteem and shows us the best way to shut down this cycle is to be honest in our relationships and brave enough to deal with the consequences of that honesty.

With Oh, Hi!, Sophie Brooks captures lightning in a bottle. Her sophomore film is a sharp, hilarious and fascinating analysis of everything wrong with romance today. It perfectly encapsulates the feelings of a generation fed up and boiling over with frustrations over dating in the modern day. While it might not hold the answers as to how to overcome relationship based anxieties and fall effortlessly in love, it does show audiences that being honest and true to yourself is the least painful and most rewarding way to make it through. 

Oh, Hi! had its New York Premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival on June ,14 2025 and will be screened again on June 15.