‘I Love You Forever’ Review: A Suffocating Beau Ties Together Genres in a Nifty Millennial Rewrite of Rom-Coms
variety.comStephen Saito “I Love You Forever” has all the trappings of a romantic comedy, for better or worse. In the whipsmart millennial-skewing film where you’re old if you’ve been caught using a third-generation iPhone, there’s something charmingly antiquated about the scene filmmakers Cazzie David and Elsa Kalani set around Mackenzie (Sofia Black D’Elia), a law student who has a pair of bickering best friends (Jon Rudnitsky and Cazzie David) to constantly amuse her and a personal life punctuated by Jessica Simpson and Michelle Branch needle drops.
Such retro touches aside, their subversive spin on the genre doesn’t seem as if it could’ve been made any earlier than 2024, amid talk that emotional manipulation in a relationship can be every bit as pernicious as physical abuse, as Mackenzie experiences when she falls for the wrong guy.
For previous generations, the wrong guy was more likely to resemble Mark Wahlberg in “Fear,” apt to terrorize an entire family if he doesn’t get what he wants from his partner.
These days, it’s easier to accept that he probably looks more like Finn (Ray Nicholson), the charming TV news reporter Mackenzie meets at a friend’s birthday party.
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