NEWNESS (2017)

Genre: Romance/Drama
Director: Drake Doremus
Cast: Nicholas Hoult, Laia Costa, Danny Huston, Courtney Eaton, Matthew Gray Gubler, Pom Klementieff, Jessica Henwick
Runtime: 1 hr 58 mins
Rating: R21 (Sexual Scenes)
Released By: Shaw Organisation 
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 11 January 2018

Synopsis: In contemporary Los Angeles, Martin and Gabi, two unacquainted millennials, spend their weekends as so many of their generation do… “swiping” on the dating app WINX. The options are endless, but tend to be less about connection and more about hooking- up. When Martin and Gabi meet, however, they find themselves talking into the early hours of the morning. Connecting. It’s exciting. It’s new... Exhilarated by each other, they rush into a relationship; hoping to perpetuate the feeling of that first night. They go out on dates. They move in together. They skip work to make love... But is this love?

Movie Review:

The way we meet new people may have changed with social apps like Tinder and Coffee Meets Bagel, but the way we stay with someone in a relationship remains the same. That’s the central message at the heart of Drake Doremus’ ‘Newness’, which follows the ups and downs of a young couple who meet through a fictional app called WINX, decide that they want more than just a one-night hookup, and then have to contend with the challenges of staying true, transparent and committed to each other.

When we first meet Martin (Nicholas Hoult) and Gabi (Laia Costa), both are thoroughly engrossed with the possibilities that the app offers – more specifically, each one is  swiping and screwing his or her way through an array of gorgeous partners night after night. But when the pair first meet, they find themselves pleasantly surprised by how much they genuinely enjoy each other’s company, so much so that it is a good few hours before they do have sex at Martin’s place. A couple more meet-ups later, both of them decide to delete their respective WINX accounts, and even more significantly, Gabi decides to move in with Martin.

Alas that stretch of giddy passion is only the start of a relationship, and after seemingly coming off that high of ‘newness’, Martin and Gabi have a brief falling-out that leads them both to cheat on each other one fateful night. Thinking that the problem might be their mutual desire to continue meeting new people, both go for couples’ therapy and agree that they will be in an open relationship, which means that they can continue to date and even have sex with other people as long as they are completely honest and transparent with each other. Not surprisingly, it is hardly as simple as it sounds; while Gabi gets cosy with an older, wealthy man Larry (Danny Huston) whom her friend Blake (Courtney Eaton) works for as a paralegal, Martin starts to get emotional over his ex-wife he learns now has a kid, pouring his heart out subsequently to Blake after a couple of drinks at a bar one evening.

Will they or will they not choose to work through the complications precipitated by their somewhat misguided choices around their relationship? Or will they decide to simply call it quits and start it over with someone else? Doremus and his frequent writer/ collaborator Ben York Jones tease this out over the course of two hours, but it really isn’t difficult to see where their relationship is headed or what they will have to do in order to stay together. Just as you’d expect therefore, Gabi’s time away with Larry causes her and Martin to drift away from each other – which is partly the reason why Martin ends up telling Blake about how much he’s still hung up over his ex-wife – and Larry’s gifts to Gabi end up making Martin jealous and angry despite their earlier agreement. Similarly, when Gabi ends up moving in with Larry, you can probably also guess just how that is likely to end up.

That it remains old-fashioned in its depiction of relationships isn’t a bad thing in and of itself – after all, generations of wisdom and experience can’t be wrong – but what truly brings the film home are its actors Hoult and Costa. There is rawness, honesty and intensity in their portrayal of Martin and Gabi, beginning from how much they can’t seem to get enough of each other to how much they can’t seem to be with each other. As is typical of such indie romances, Doremus brings the camera right into their presence, so you’ll feel right up close and intimate as they fall in love, fight, and even f**k with each other. The chemistry between them is quite remarkable, and the intimacy you get with their characters makes you root for them to finally realise that all they need is each other, even after the novelty of being together wears off.

On his part, Doremus builds a visually mesmerizing world around them, accentuating nighttime hues and daytime cools. He has also assembled a kick-ass soundtrack, including cuts from Nouvelle Vague, Jim James and legendary pianist Nihls Frahm. But ‘Newness’ doesn’t just engage you sensorially; it does so emotionally too, and in a manner that is personal and passionate at the same time. Ultimately, its truisms about fidelity and truthfulness ring deep, and though it may be set in the context of dating amongst millennials today, these lessons will resonate with anyone who’s ever been in love and in a relationship. It may sound like a paradox, but its old-fashioned ways make ‘Newness’ even more refreshing and appealing. 

Movie Rating:

(Intimate, intense and invigorating, this love story set in the age of iPhone dating offers heartfelt lessons on the importance of fidelity and transparency)

Review by Gabriel Chong