The new film “You, Me & Tuscany” is what I would call a light romantic comedy, a mostly run-of-the-mill, forgettable two hours.
The upside of this mostly average story and movie are the locations and vistas of Tuscany, Italy, which has been the location of other movies in the past, the most memorable is the Diane Lane film “Under the Tuscan Sun”, released in 2003.
This story has been told many times before: two people, each carrying their own emotional baggage, find themselves in Tuscany under unexpected circumstances. In this case, the main character, Anna, played by Halle Bailey, finds herself in Tuscany, after a small fling with a man she meets at a restaurant, even though she has almost no money, and only because she saw that this man, she met Marco Calvani, is wealthy and his house in Tuscany is empty. Then Anna meets and is attracted to Marco’s brother Micheal, played by Regé-Jean Page, setting the stage for some insane drama at the end of this story.
The Rotten Tomatoes are a correct and predictable 69%, because there is nothing new here, just another predictable romatic comedy story. I agree with this rating and do not recommend this movie.
The new movie “The Drama” starring Robert Pattinson as Charlie and Zendaya as Emma starts out as a typical relationship, engagement, and eventual marriage, but soon degrades into an uncomfortable, strange and very risky direction, where, during a “Truth or Dare” Emma tells her husband and two friends about a thought she had at age 15, where she was considering killing her fellow students in a school sdhooting. Clearly, if there had been any recent school shooting in the United States, this movie would not have been released on April 3, 2026, if ever. I was amazed that a screenplay like this was greenlit and two famous and very bankable stars like Pattinson and Zendaya agreed to act in this movie, considering the extremely sensitive subject of school shootings. Every time we all think that we have not seen a school shooting in a while, this is when another one or several more happen again.
The rest of this story is about the problems that Emma and Charlie understandably have in their relationship after this horrendous revelation about Emma is known. Another way of looking at this story is, why would Emma ever admit to anyone that she had sick thoughts of shooting many school children when she was 15 years old?
There is a major climax during Charlie and Emma’s wedding, and I remember wondering why they got married, considering Charlie’s many episodes of huge doubt about Emma’s mental health.
The Rotten Tomatoes are a way too high 79%, with my rating at 50%, mainly for the very bad premise of this movie, which does not give respect to the many victims of school shootings in this country. This film is another one to miss.
The recent movie “If I Had Legs I would Kick You”, gave an Oscar nomination to Rose Byrne for best actress. This story was about a woman who was constantly down on her luck, with one bad break after another, trying to survive. We can all relate to stories like this one, because we all know that life can be much more than just unfair.
I was surprised at the similarity of the new Rose Byrne movie “Tow”, which is a movie about a woman Amanda played by Rose Byrne, who has lost everything due to a car accident followed by addiction to opioids, alcoholism, and is now barely surviving and living in her car. This screenplay would be impossible to pitch to any producer were it not for this insane story being 100% true.
Tow is not only a story about perseverance and survival, but also the cruelty of other people, who not only do not care about another person who is at their lowest, but go out of their way to make their lives even worse.
On a job interview to work at a Veteranarian clinic, Amanda parks her car legally in a local parking lot. After the interview, when she is on a high after getting the job, she notices that her car (a 1991 Toyota Corolla) has been stolen. Even though the car was stolen and has now been found, Rose is required to pay a towing station $279 dollars. We find out later that this is a scam to take advantage of desperate, poor people. After Rose does not have the money to get her car back, she seeks justice through the court system, which is a disaster of red tape, paperwork, and incompetent people. Even with a court order ordering the towing company to return Amanda’s car, the towing company sells her car, and she has to continue to fight to get her car back, and every day the towing company adds more fines, eventually totaling to over $22,000. This is all impossible to believe that a situation like this could exist in the United States.
Due to some fluke luck, Amanda finds a lawyer, Kevin, played by Dominic Sessa, who actually wants to help her, but his help uncovers the lawyer/owner of the towing company, Martin LaRosa, played by Corbin Bernson, who goes out of his way to make Amanda’s life even more unbearable than it already is. It is clear throughout this story that Amanda not only loves the car that she has owned for many years, but for someone like Amanda, her car is also her home; and lowlifes like LaRosa only care about piling on their unrelenting cruelty.
Despite this low-budget movie, there are a large number of well-known actors, including Octavia Spencer, Demi Lovato, Corbin Bernsen, and Oscar-winning Ariana DeBose. The acting is great throughout this story. There are also outstanding sub-stories including the manager of a homeless shelter played by Octavia, a homeless pregnant woman played by Lovato, and a single mother and drug addict played by Debose.
This film is about real life, injustice, and the cruelty of some very bad people towards the unfortunate homeless who are down on their luck. Much of this story is hard to watch for anyone who has any level of human empathy.
The Rotten Tomatoes ratings for this very good movie are a too low 78% with my rating at 85% and a strong recommendation.
A Screenwriters Perspective: Current and Past Movies. 