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And you sure as bloody hell don’t tap Charlie Kaufman, the Screenwriter’s Guild’s mod-classic clown, to collaborate on the script. Don’t get me wrong, quixotic genius abounds in Kaufman’s tomfoolery. But if his previous scripts (*Being John Malkovich*, *Adaptation*, etc.) had a fault, it was that they spent so much time winking and flaunting their own damnable cleverness that the characters no longer existed to show us our faltering humanity but simply to provide an outlet for Kaufman’s incessant cheek-tonguing. So you can imagine my utter stupefaction when, approximately halfway through his newest project, I detect an honest-to-god lump swelling uncomfortably. Like a malignant tumor. At the base of my throat. *Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind*, a beguiling hybrid romantic comedy and sci-fi gambol about a pair of estranged lovers hoping to alleviate their post-breakup blues by visiting a medical facility specializing in memory erasure, joins a longstanding tradition of films toying with the notion of science/technology as sprung genie—granting wishes easily enough but ultimately refusing to guarantee customer satisfaction. (Time-travel films, a la *Back to the Future*, have been wringing dry this conceptual sponge for years). But where *Eternal Sunshine* distinguishes itself most isn’t in concept or approach or even plot, but in the disheveled poetry Kaufman plants in the mouths of his characters. Even the film’s title, plucked from Alexander Pope’s 18th-century poem “Eloisa to Abelard,” shows up toward the film’s emotional climax in a particularly arresting voice-over: “How happy is the blameless vestal’s lot! / The world forgetting, by the world forgot / Eternal sunshine of the spotless mind! / Each pray’r accepted, and each wish resign’d.” Jim Carrey, graduating *summa cum laude* from the Bill Murray School for Erstwhile Sketch Comics Who Long to Make The Whole World Cry, turns in the most brilliantly understated (read: non-spastic) performance of his career as Joel Barish, a journal-doodling hobbyist and romantically gun-shy loner who’s eager to fall in love but near-paralyzed by his fear of women. This is Kaufman’s archetypal male: the self-deprecating, socially impotent loser artist who awkwardly struggles to establish any sort of connection with the opposite sex (remember John Cusack’s mopey character in *Being John Malkovich*?). In the tradition of Raphael and numerous other Renaissance artists, Kaufman has a penchant for painting himself into his canvases, a lark which *Adaptation* revels in unapologetically. Regardless, Carrey nails the part, winning audience sympathy from the opening moments of the film as he bumbles his way through what appears to be his initial introduction to Clementine Kruczynski—a terminally chatty, spontaneous and borderline-neurotic woman (whimsically portrayed by Kate Winslet)—aboard a train to scenic Montauk, after surprising himself one weekday morning with the uncharacteristically impulsive idea of skipping work and taking a spontaneous detour. Borrowing sequencing techniques from Christopher Nolan’s *Memento*, *Eternal Sunshine* delights and befuddles in much the same fashion, forcing viewers to experience the characters’ lingering sense of dislocation from the very circumstances of their own lives. Amid the unsettling confusion, however, lies the exhilaration of gradually piecing together the jigsaw puzzle of Joel and Clementine’s relationship, a romance so fitful, paranoid and off-kilter that it seems frighteningly documentary. These characters feel so emotionally credible, in fact, that when Kaufman predictably sends the film barreling pell-mell through his trademark Carrollian looking glass, you barely flinch. In this case, that looking glass comes in the form of Lacuna, Inc., a company that developed a “cutting-edge, non-surgical procedure for the focused erasure of troubling memories.” After Joel stumbles upon evidence that Clementine has employed Lacuna to wipe him from her memory, he too visits their downtown offices, seeking to undergo a similar procedure to rid himself of the painful, hounding memories of his tangerine-haired beloved. Later that night, after his initial consultation and appointment, knocked out and semi-comatose due to a powerful dose of anesthesia administered by the Lacuna staff, Joel awakens within his own slumbering subconscious—Kaufman’s trusty alibi for indulging in a lengthy cinematic acid trip—and quickly realizes that forever losing the memory of Clementine would prove an infinitely greater tragedy than merely surviving the ache of losing her outwardly. As the Lacuna technician begins tinkering with Joel’s computer-rendered “brain map” in an attempt to delete any memories linked to Clem, Joel’s psyche turns psycho—names on street signs and books disappear at random, real memories of Clem are distorted and/or blended with unrelated ones, rain pours down inside Joel’s living room, along with every other visual non sequitur you can imagine. At this point, a subconscious Joel takes his subconscious Clem by the subconscious hand and the two begin a frantic attempt to save not only the memory of their relationship, but the relationship itself. Don’t be fooled by the glib, offhand nature of the film’s surface demeanor. Kaufman’s endearingly off-the-wall antics are pronounced as ever, but he’s finally learning how to temper his humorous sport with something called humanistic spirit. This anti-romantic comedy has a beating heart at its center. And while it insists on offering a vision of romantic love through a carnival funhouse mirror dimly, the view is bright enough to leave a camera-flash-to-retina-style impression. One you will not soon forget. Comments   Keep scrolling for more great stories.  C # *You, Me & Tuscany* flies to Italy on autopilot ## Halle Bailey and Regé-Jean Page have everything going for their rom-com, but that potential is compressed into a postcard. By [Rory Doherty](https://www.pastemagazine.com/author/rory-doherty) \| April 9, 2026 \| 7:00am *Photo: Universal Pictures* **[Movies](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies) [Reviews](https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/movies/reviews)**  Copy to clipboard - [Copy Link](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/you-me-and-tuscany-review) - [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/you-me-and-tuscany-review) - [X](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?via=endlessmode&related=endlessmode&url=You%2C+Me+%26amp%3Bamp%3B+Tuscany+flies+to+Italy+on+autopilot&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pastemagazine.com%2Fmovies%2Fyou-me-and-tuscany-review) - [Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/submit?title=You%2C+Me+%26amp%3Bamp%3B+Tuscany+flies+to+Italy+on+autopilot&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pastemagazine.com%2Fmovies%2Fyou-me-and-tuscany-review) - [Bluesky](https://bsky.app/intent/compose?text=You,%20Me%20&amp;%20Tuscany%20flies%20to%20Italy%20on%20autopilot%20https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/you-me-and-tuscany-review)  In *You, Me & Tuscany*, Anna (Halle Bailey) is a broke housesitter squandering her potential. She’s a trained chef, but her career was put on the back-burner after her mother died, and now she throws herself into the temporary luxury of other people’s lives. On a fateful trip to a New York hotel bar, where her bestie Claire (Aziza Scott) has promised she can charge her phone, she meets Matteo (Lorenzo de Moor), a drop-dead gorgeous Italian real estate broker. They hit it off, but while Matteo’s jetlag prevents them from having a one-night stand, the memory of his unoccupied, beyond-picturesque Tuscan villa lingers in Anna’s mind, a North Star that reanimates her love for Italian cuisine, culture, and climate. This is where things get messy, and for the film’s purposes, exciting: There is no room available at his village when she arrives, so Anna crashes in Matteo’s villa, knowing it’s empty—and when Matteo’s agitated Italian family discovers the American squatter, she is saved by a family heirloom engagement ring that she put on after rooting through Matteo’s things. Naturally, they assume she’s Matteo’s fiance. As it seems to be the only way to avoid being arrested, Anna confirms their assumption. The rest of *You, Me & Tuscany* is spent adding tension to this convoluted lie—not least being the addition of Matteo’s winegrower cousin Michael (Regé-Jean Page), who resents Matteo for abandoning his family and happens to be a much better fit for Anna. *You, Me & Tuscany* gets its genre fundamentals correct—this is a terrific rom-com premise, as absurd as it is titillating, loaded with conflict that promises to lead to a happy ending. But if *You, Me & Tuscany* gets the peppy, frivolous basics right, its brushwork is way off. The film is only truly successful if you watch it from the middle distance, where it’s easy to conclude that it resembles a good rom-com without having to diagnose its atrocious visual design, tropey plotting, and queasy comedy for what it is—a tired, flat mishandling of high-potential material. This is Halle Bailey’s first lead role since playing Ariel in the live-action [*The Little Mermaid*](https://www.avclub.com/the-little-mermaid-remake-film-review-1850444615)*,* and she brings a similar peppy enthusiasm (with far less naïveté) to Anna. From the moment she arrives on vacation, Anna is chipper and forthright, but while she’s savvy enough to save her skin with the engagement lie, she balks at the repeated opportunities to confess her deception. Anna is a well-rounded stab at a rom-com protagonist—someone who knows the value of chasing her desires but lacks the conviction and integrity to be honest with the people she’s deceived in the process. Anna is so happy with the vibes—the picturesque locale, Matteo’s eccentric and adoring family, the luxury of this new, fake life, the *food*—that she won’t push back against the boundaries of this too-good-to-be-true fantasy. Enter the film’s dollop of cynicism: Michael, who gets off on the wrong foot with Anna by stealing the last sandwich from the village deli and makes up for it by showing her around the village during the prep for a big, traditional festival. Surprise, surprise, they hit it off just like Anna and Matteo did, especially after a few glasses of wine (and after he massages grape-growing soil through her fingers). When Anna and Michael are being flirty and reckless, *You, Me & Tuscany* is a lot of fun—there’s a patent absurdity to the body-brushes, shirt-removals, and breathy near-kisses that nimbly synthesizes both “rom” and “com.” But Page is far more suited to Michael’s snarkiness than the character’s dashing romance responsibilities—when Matteo eventually returns, Page is convincingly intense as a jealous, feuding cousin, but he’s less convincing as Anna’s sultry pursuer. He channels [*Black Bag*](https://www.avclub.com/black-bag-review) far more than he does [*Bridgerton*](https://www.pastemagazine.com/tv/bridgerton-season-4-part-2-review-tv-netflix). And aside from that performance miscalculation, there’s no getting around a central flaw: *You, Me & Tuscany* is atrociously ugly, marked by vacant compositions and clueless editing, the visual texture of a credit card commercial, and sweeping drone shots that look compressed and crummy on the big screen. *You, Me & Tuscany*‘s director Kat Coiro ([*Marry Me*](https://www.avclub.com/marry-me-movie-review-jennifer-lopez-owen-wilson-1848502706)) brings none of the visual spark suggested by its destination: basic cinematography rules are ignored while bland hi-def images sap the real Italian locations of their lush colors. Worse, though, is its production design; putting aside the egregious but ultimately harmless product placement, Matteo’s villa is a vapid “dream home.” The modern kitchen and boxy, trendy furniture is a dead giveaway of a classic rustic home that’s been gutted and refitted for a second life as a soulless Airbnb. This has a negative effect on Anna’s arc—the villa is meant to represent an authentic, tantalizing other life that fulfils all of her wild fantasies but, crucially, isn’t hers. Where is the flawed stonework, the sporadic and inconsistent lighting, the old-fashioned furniture and relics born from decades of life in a small town? The villa is insufficiently romantic, and its inauthenticity indicates that the film’s vision is blinkered. *You, Me & Tuscany* was written by Ryan Engle, who’s responsible for the generic yet solid scripts of films like *Beast, The Commuter,* and *Non-Stop*. But the halfway-there result of *You, Me & Tuscany* indicates that writing a good-enough rom-com is harder than delivering a good-enough action thriller. The balance of satisfying emotion, tense but lightweight deception, and chemistry-fueled spark won’t simply gel together after assembling the right elements. *You, Me & Tuscany* bought the right ticket, but it’s flying to Italy on autopilot. **Director:** Kat Coiro **Writer:** Ryan Engle **Starring:** Halle Bailey, Regé-Jean Page, Marco Calvani, Aziza Scott, Lorenzo de Moor, Isabella Ferrari **Release Date:** April 10, 2026 Comments   Keep scrolling for more great stories.  B- # Purgatory has nothing on the looped commute of *Exit 8* ## Adapting the hit game with an engrossing aesthetic, the psychological film is tedious, but smart enough to use that to its advantage. By [Jacob Oller](https://www.pastemagazine.com/author/jacob-oller) \| April 8, 2026 \| 3:00pm *Photo: Neon* **[Movies](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies) [Reviews](https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/movies/reviews) [Exit 8](https://www.pastemagazine.com/search?q=Exit+8)**  Copy to clipboard - [Copy Link](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/exit-8/exit-8-review) - [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/exit-8/exit-8-review) - [X](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?via=endlessmode&related=endlessmode&url=Purgatory+has+nothing+on+the+looped+commute+of+Exit+8&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pastemagazine.com%2Fmovies%2Fexit-8%2Fexit-8-review) - [Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/submit?title=Purgatory+has+nothing+on+the+looped+commute+of+Exit+8&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pastemagazine.com%2Fmovies%2Fexit-8%2Fexit-8-review) - [Bluesky](https://bsky.app/intent/compose?text=Purgatory%20has%20nothing%20on%20the%20looped%20commute%20of%20Exit%208%20https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/exit-8/exit-8-review)  Leaving *Exit 8*, you may have to turn through the endless carpeted corridors of a multiplex, search the identical rows of a full lot, circle around a parking garage, shift through the blurring lanes of a highway, or navigate the bowels of a train station. It’ll be an experience akin to the film itself, and the 2023 video game it’s based on, which turns the mundane liminal spaces of our lives into places for reflection, frustration, and—if we’re not careful—imprisonment. Genki Kawamura’s adaptation, both beautiful and banal, lives up to its source material. It’s not the most exciting experience, watching a trapped man walk through the same white-tiled subway tunnel over and over and over again, looking for inconsistencies between the iterations, but it does become something perilously balanced between contemplative and creepy, calming and uncanny. That’s a complex enough atmosphere to overcome a narrative core that amounts to Spot The Difference by way of [*Groundhog Day*](https://www.avclub.com/groundhog-day-dvd-1798195720). In keeping with the latter reference, this cyclical story is all about A Lost Man (Kazunari Ninomiya) learning to make better choices—or, for this asthmatic slacker, *any* choice, rather than simply drifting along the tides of life. Over his looping and labyrinthine journey, which he becomes trapped in during a commute to his temp job, he encounters a man who’s part of the cycle (Yamato Kochi) and a young boy who isn’t (Naru Asanuma). These, mostly, are the only other faces in *Exit 8*. There are other voices, like the ex-girlfriend whose call (she’s pregnant!) rouses the protagonist from his routine stupor, but few other people. Kawamura directs our eyes instead to his film’s own routine, and the rules of that routine’s game. *Exit 8* is predominately composed of walking through and observing a single location, a brightly lit hallway with a hanging sign, a series of posters, a few locked doors, a couple vents, a man strolling through, and ending at a curve that contains storage lockers, litter, and a photo booth. If any of this is amiss, or “anomalous” in the language of the film, then the lost man must turn back, moving on to the second level, third level, and so on until reaching the exit at eight. If he fails to find the difference and moves forward, or balks at something unchanged and erroneously goes back the way he came, he resets back to zero. It first seems like Kawamura will be emulating the experience of playing the game, shooting the long opening take as a POV shot that makes immersive use of noise-cancelling headphones, before transitioning to a slick third-person perspective more akin to watching someone else play the game on Twitch (complete with the urge to enter chat and tell the player that he’s terrible at this very simple game). Both approaches favor the illusion of unbroken takes, where cuts are masked around turned corners, to keep our attention rapt. Through this approach and the film’s script, Kawamura and co-writer Kentaro Hirase savvily translate the teaching experience and learning curve of a game to film, leading the audience and this poor sap alike through the maze and its rules. Evoking the stark, static, structural images of Chantal Akerman’s unsettling *Hotel Monterey* or the fuzzy frames of [*Skinamarink*](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/horror-movies/skinamarink-review-explained-meaning-kaylee-kevin-death-mother) that make you lean in too closely looking for something out of the ordinary, *Exit 8* knows it’s tedious, and plays with what it can find among the boredom. Of course, that doesn’t change the fact that it’s tedious, nor is that quality fully alleviated by the film having a far more coherent narrative than either of those experimental films. As the Lost Man navigates this living *Highlights* puzzle, his asthma acts up, he encounters the aforementioned child, and he mulls over that life-changing call he received right before finding himself stuck in public transit purgatory. The latter two clumsily contribute—alongside ubiquitous crying-baby sound effects lifted straight from [*P.T.*](https://www.avclub.com/pt-10-year-anniversary-look-behind-you-explained) (the ur-text for games about scary, looped L-shaped halls)—to the thematic plight of this possible parent-to-be. What better time to consider big life decisions than when stuck in one of the many soul-sucking patterns that make up our days? It’s not hard to see why these in-between spaces, the repetitive crap that clogs up your day, is resurging as a setting for psychological horror. Workers chafe against back-to-office mandates, their commutes spent sucked into screens filled with doom and gloom or dissociating on familiar drives. Those scrolling in their free time freefall into the infinite feed. *Exit 8* excels at capturing that isolation and disaffection in an elegant environmental ouroboros, though what it does once it establishes its atmosphere never matches that simple artistry. **Director:** Genki Kawamura **Writer:** Kentaro Hirase, Genki Kawamura **Starring:** Kazunari Ninomiya, Yamato Kochi, Naru Asanuma, Kotone Hanase, Nana Komatsu **Release Date:** April 10, 2026 Comments   Keep scrolling for more great stories.  # James Gunn immediately shuts down reports of *Man Of Tomorrow* screen tests ## The director called out the "shoddy & incorrect" reporting of *Deadline*, which maintains that Adria Arjona is in the running for the *Superman* sequel. By [Drew Gillis](https://www.pastemagazine.com/author/drewgillis) \| April 8, 2026 \| 2:18pm *Photo by Axelle/Bauer-Griffin/FilmMagic* **[Media](https://www.pastemagazine.com/media) [News](https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/media/news) [Man Of Tomorrow](https://www.pastemagazine.com/search?q=Man+Of+Tomorrow)**  Copy to clipboard - [Copy Link](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/man-of-tomorrow/james-gunn-man-of-tomorrow-screentest-adria-arjona) - [Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/man-of-tomorrow/james-gunn-man-of-tomorrow-screentest-adria-arjona) - [X](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?via=endlessmode&related=endlessmode&url=James+Gunn+immediately+shuts+down+reports+of+Man+Of+Tomorrow+screen+tests&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pastemagazine.com%2Fmovies%2Fman-of-tomorrow%2Fjames-gunn-man-of-tomorrow-screentest-adria-arjona) - [Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/submit?title=James+Gunn+immediately+shuts+down+reports+of+Man+Of+Tomorrow+screen+tests&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.pastemagazine.com%2Fmovies%2Fman-of-tomorrow%2Fjames-gunn-man-of-tomorrow-screentest-adria-arjona) - [Bluesky](https://bsky.app/intent/compose?text=James%20Gunn%20immediately%20shuts%20down%20reports%20of%20Man%20Of%20Tomorrow%20screen%20tests%20https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/man-of-tomorrow/james-gunn-man-of-tomorrow-screentest-adria-arjona)  Earlier today, [*Deadline* reported](https://deadline.com/2026/04/superman-2-maxima-ella-purnell-adria-arjona-testing-1236784228/) that Adria Arjona, Ella Purnell, and Marisa Abela were screentesting for the role of Maxima in the upcoming *Superman* sequel, *Man Of Tomorrow*. This was exciting to many on the internet, but unfortunately, it was not true, according to director James Gunn. “Deadline’s reporting is shoddy & incorrect,” Gunn wrote [today on Threads](https://www.threads.com/@jamesgunn/post/DW4GOIqkSnM). “I’ve always thought Deadline was pretty thorough in their journalism but that’s not the case here so I’m frankly disappointed. If someone would have run these names by us we would have said it’s bullshit. I’ve been friends with Adria a long time since I cast her in the Belko Experiment. I’m a fan of both Marisa and Ella but I’ve never met either of them. Crazy.” *Deadline* has since issued a semi-retraction of the story, writing that went through “its normal editorial process in the newsgathering for this story. After a review in light of new information regarding the actors involved, the story is currently being updated.” That update appears to exclude Abela and Purnell from the running, but the trade is standing by its reporting that Arjona screentested for the role last week, citing multiple unnamed sources. We suppose we will see who’s right sometime between [now and summer 2027](https://www.avclub.com/superman-sequel-man-of-tomorrow-release-date-july-2027). 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In *You, Me & Tuscany*, Anna (Halle Bailey) is a broke housesitter squandering her potential. She’s a trained chef, but her career was put on the back-burner after her mother died, and now she throws herself into the temporary luxury of other people’s lives. On a fateful trip to a New York hotel bar, where her bestie Claire (Aziza Scott) has promised she can charge her phone, she meets Matteo (Lorenzo de Moor), a drop-dead gorgeous Italian real estate broker. They hit it off, but while Matteo’s jetlag prevents them from having a one-night stand, the memory of his unoccupied, beyond-picturesque Tuscan villa lingers in Anna’s mind, a North Star that reanimates her love for Italian cuisine, culture, and climate. This is where things get messy, and for the film’s purposes, exciting: There is no room available at his village when she arrives, so Anna crashes in Matteo’s villa, knowing it’s empty—and when Matteo’s agitated Italian family discovers the American squatter, she is saved by a family heirloom engagement ring that she put on after rooting through Matteo’s things. Naturally, they assume she’s Matteo’s fiance. As it seems to be the only way to avoid being arrested, Anna confirms their assumption. The rest of *You, Me & Tuscany* is spent adding tension to this convoluted lie—not least being the addition of Matteo’s winegrower cousin Michael (Regé-Jean Page), who resents Matteo for abandoning his family and happens to be a much better fit for Anna. *You, Me & Tuscany* gets its genre fundamentals correct—this is a terrific rom-com premise, as absurd as it is titillating, loaded with conflict that promises to lead to a happy ending. But if *You, Me & Tuscany* gets the peppy, frivolous basics right, its brushwork is way off. The film is only truly successful if you watch it from the middle distance, where it’s easy to conclude that it resembles a good rom-com without having to diagnose its atrocious visual design, tropey plotting, and queasy comedy for what it is—a tired, flat mishandling of high-potential material. This is Halle Bailey’s first lead role since playing Ariel in the live-action [*The Little Mermaid*](https://www.avclub.com/the-little-mermaid-remake-film-review-1850444615)*,* and she brings a similar peppy enthusiasm (with far less naïveté) to Anna. From the moment she arrives on vacation, Anna is chipper and forthright, but while she’s savvy enough to save her skin with the engagement lie, she balks at the repeated opportunities to confess her deception. Anna is a well-rounded stab at a rom-com protagonist—someone who knows the value of chasing her desires but lacks the conviction and integrity to be honest with the people she’s deceived in the process. Anna is so happy with the vibes—the picturesque locale, Matteo’s eccentric and adoring family, the luxury of this new, fake life, the *food*—that she won’t push back against the boundaries of this too-good-to-be-true fantasy. Enter the film’s dollop of cynicism: Michael, who gets off on the wrong foot with Anna by stealing the last sandwich from the village deli and makes up for it by showing her around the village during the prep for a big, traditional festival. Surprise, surprise, they hit it off just like Anna and Matteo did, especially after a few glasses of wine (and after he massages grape-growing soil through her fingers). When Anna and Michael are being flirty and reckless, *You, Me & Tuscany* is a lot of fun—there’s a patent absurdity to the body-brushes, shirt-removals, and breathy near-kisses that nimbly synthesizes both “rom” and “com.” But Page is far more suited to Michael’s snarkiness than the character’s dashing romance responsibilities—when Matteo eventually returns, Page is convincingly intense as a jealous, feuding cousin, but he’s less convincing as Anna’s sultry pursuer. He channels [*Black Bag*](https://www.avclub.com/black-bag-review) far more than he does [*Bridgerton*](https://www.pastemagazine.com/tv/bridgerton-season-4-part-2-review-tv-netflix). And aside from that performance miscalculation, there’s no getting around a central flaw: *You, Me & Tuscany* is atrociously ugly, marked by vacant compositions and clueless editing, the visual texture of a credit card commercial, and sweeping drone shots that look compressed and crummy on the big screen. *You, Me & Tuscany*‘s director Kat Coiro ([*Marry Me*](https://www.avclub.com/marry-me-movie-review-jennifer-lopez-owen-wilson-1848502706)) brings none of the visual spark suggested by its destination: basic cinematography rules are ignored while bland hi-def images sap the real Italian locations of their lush colors. Worse, though, is its production design; putting aside the egregious but ultimately harmless product placement, Matteo’s villa is a vapid “dream home.” The modern kitchen and boxy, trendy furniture is a dead giveaway of a classic rustic home that’s been gutted and refitted for a second life as a soulless Airbnb. This has a negative effect on Anna’s arc—the villa is meant to represent an authentic, tantalizing other life that fulfils all of her wild fantasies but, crucially, isn’t hers. Where is the flawed stonework, the sporadic and inconsistent lighting, the old-fashioned furniture and relics born from decades of life in a small town? The villa is insufficiently romantic, and its inauthenticity indicates that the film’s vision is blinkered. *You, Me & Tuscany* was written by Ryan Engle, who’s responsible for the generic yet solid scripts of films like *Beast, The Commuter,* and *Non-Stop*. But the halfway-there result of *You, Me & Tuscany* indicates that writing a good-enough rom-com is harder than delivering a good-enough action thriller. The balance of satisfying emotion, tense but lightweight deception, and chemistry-fueled spark won’t simply gel together after assembling the right elements. *You, Me & Tuscany* bought the right ticket, but it’s flying to Italy on autopilot. **Director:** Kat Coiro **Writer:** Ryan Engle **Starring:** Halle Bailey, Regé-Jean Page, Marco Calvani, Aziza Scott, Lorenzo de Moor, Isabella Ferrari **Release Date:** April 10, 2026  Keep scrolling for more great stories.