There is something about sitting down with genuinely good films after a string of disappointing ones that reignites my love for films. This week I sat down with a romantic comedy, a southern gothic revenge film, and a supernatural horror thriller. Three very different films, all centered on women, all worth your time in different ways. Here are my thoughts.

Voicemails for Isabella

Directed by Leah McKendrick, this Netflix rom-com follows Jill, an aspiring baker in San Francisco who is still grieving the loss of her younger sister Isabelle by leaving voicemails on her old number. What she doesn’t know is that the number has been reassigned to Wes, an Austin real estate agent who becomes quietly and then not so quietly invested in her life through those voicemails. He learns her dating history, her career frustrations, her sense of humor, all before they ever meet. It is a premise that could have gone wrong in several directions, the most obvious being that Wes reads as a full creep and the whole thing falls apart. But the film sidesteps that by casting Zoey Deutch and Nick Robinson, two genuinely charming actors whose chemistry makes you willing to forgive a lot.

But here is what separates Voicemails for Isabella from a good rom-com and makes it a great one. The film never forgets that the voicemails are not really about Wes. They are about Isabelle. Jill is not leaving messages into the void because she is quirky or romantic. She is leaving them because her sister was the person she talked to about everything, and that person is gone, and she has not figured out how to exist without that. The film returns to that grief consistently throughout, refusing to let the love story swallow it. Every time you settle into the romance, something pulls you back to the reason any of this started. That is the heart of the movie. Although typically I’m not a rom-com girl, I usually hate most rom-coms but this movie was so touching that like the Grinch, my small heart grew three sizes after watching it. Strongly recommending this one and rating it 8.4/10

Is God Is

Twin sisters Racine and Anaia, both disfigured in a fire set by their father when they were children, receive a letter from their mother, who they believed had died in that same fire. They drive cross country to find her on her deathbed, and she has one request: make their father dead. What follows is a southern gothic revenge story that is bloody, strange, and completely intentional about every choice it makes.

Now when it comes to Black Southern Goth stories, I’ll admit I’m biased because it doesn’t take much for me to love them but fortunately the film earned it because it gave me everything I want from this genre. Black women leads- check, great acting-check and random plot twist- check.  Is God Is feels like Kill Bill collided with southern gothic folklore and the result is an unpredictable, chaotic, fun watch.

What the film does exceptionally well is its sound design. The way fire sounds are layered throughout, individual objects catching, matches striking, it keeps you on edge in a way that feels almost subconscious. The father is framed throughout as something close to the devil, through musical cues and the film’s recurring fire imagery, so when he finally appears you expect a commanding, terrifying presence. Instead he speaks in a surprisingly calm, smooth voice. The film almost makes you doubt he could be as monstrous as advertised until he reminds us why they call him the devil, that choice alone shows real directorial instincts.

The writing is sharp and the cast is exceptional. You can feel Aleshea Harris’s background as a playwright in the dialogue and in how efficiently she establishes each character. The film doesn’t waste scenes. It does not need to hammer its themes home repeatedly because it trusts its audience, and at a tight hundred minute runtime it is better for it. The one honest critique is that the camera work doesn’t always match the ambition of the script. Some of the action sequences don’t fully land physically but for a debut feature this is incredible work and it makes me want to see everything Harris does next. 9.1/10

Obsession

Yes I’m late to this one but let’s get into it. Obsession follows Bear, a socially awkward music store employee who buys a supernatural toy called a One Wish Willow and uses it to wish that his friend Nikki would love him more than anyone in the world. The wish works, immediately and horrifically, and the film spends the rest of its runtime showing you exactly what it looks like when desire becomes possession.

A lot can be said about Bear and whether his wish makes him a villain. What the film does brilliantly is settle that question without ever making it explicit. The introduction of Sarah, a coworker who clearly has feelings for Bear, is one of the smartest writing choices in the movie. She likes him the way he likes Nikki, and Bear barely registers her existence. He would obviously never want Sarah to act on her feelings the way he acted on his. That mirror is quietly damning.

The film also makes a point of showing that Nikki experiences no pleasure in any of the intimate moments between them even while possessed, which keeps the moral weight squarely where it belongs. Bear is not a monster, but he is the one who created this situation out of desperation and entitlement, and the film never lets him off the hook for that even as it makes him sympathetic.

What elevates Obsession beyond a standard horror premise is how well the escalation is written. No matter how extreme Nikki’s behavior becomes, you always understand the internal logic behind it. The acting from Inde Navarrette is strong enough for an oscar nod in my humble opinion because the shift between Nikki and the possessed version of her is precise and deeply unsettling, and you feel the tragedy of watching someone lose themselves completely. A great horror thriller and one of the best of the year. 9.3/10

That’s this week’s batch review, three very different films but overall a good watch. Let me know which ones you have seen and what you would rate it in the comments.