Sundance '25: 'OH HI! – A Rom-Com with a Body Count?

Molly Gordon and Logan Lerman are lovers on a seemingly idyllic upstate weekend outing in writer-director Sophie Brooks’ Oh Hi!. What begins as a disgustingly cute romantic getaway takes a sharp turn when the nature of their relationship is drawn into question. Despite their easy chemistry and rollicking sex life, Lerman’s Isaac insists on keeping things casual, while Gordon’s Iris yearns for the most meager crumbs of commitment. When he can’t even manage that, she makes a split-second decision to prove they’re meant to be together, though her methods are, let’s say, unconventional.

A laugh-a-minute anti-rom-com that skewers the horrors of modern dating, Brooks’ impressive debut—co-written by Gordon, who also penned the hilarious Theater Camp—pushes nightmarish dating tropes to their absolute extreme. Oh Hi! teeters on the edge of absurdity, as if one wrong move could send everything spiraling into full-blown horror with a different kind of body count. Iris may be more complex than the “crazy girlfriend” stereotype, but Gordon dials up her manic energy to the perfect, anxiety-inducing pitch and doesn’t let up for a moment. From her offhanded jokes about stabbing an ex to the crazed little glances she shoots when things don’t go her way, she plays Iris as a woman who, despite her charm, is not someone you want to disappoint. The film gets funnier as she grows increasingly unhinged—partly because her desperation is red flag city, and partly because Gordon is wringing every last cringeworthy drop from Iris’ escalating antics.

Lerman is great too—effortlessly charming, flirty, romantic. But once it becomes clear he’s a “softboy”—a fuckboy who wants romance sans any commitment —those same qualities start to feel a little slimy. His aversion to commitment, we learn, isn’t just casual ambivalence but a deep-seated insecurity stemming from childhood, when he caught his father cheating on his mother. Lerman plays Isaac with just enough vulnerability to make him sympathetic, but never enough to fully absolve him—he’s still that guy who refuses to DTR while enjoying all its perks.

Things escalate into full-blown madcap comedy, but the humor almost always lands. The arrival of Iris’ friends, Max (Geraldine Viswanathan) and Kenny (John Reynolds)—both hilarious in their own right—pushes Oh Hi! into zanier territory. If you’re willing to embrace its hyperreal, untethered energy, the film rewards you with a sharp, biting take on the horrors of modern dating. Brooks, in an impressive directorial debut, masterfully builds tension, keeping the film teetering on the edge of chaos, where anything — fighting, fucking, falling in love — feels possible.

But for all its wild energy, Oh Hi! also sneaks in an unexpectedly sharp thesis on the emotional warfare of relationships. What does it mean to be “good” at a relationship? Gordon’s Iris may be doing everything wrong, but the intention beneath her actions are rooted in a very real fear of being used, especially in an era when a new partner is but a swipe away while genuine connection seems harder to forge than ever.