If there's an American filmmaker to keep your eye on right now, it just might just be Adam Rehmeier. While I wasn't as high on last year's Snack Shack, I along with many really dug Rehmeier's breakout film Dinner in America. This reunites him with Kyle Gallner, and delivers perhaps the biggest suprise of the festival for me.
The film follows the titular Caroline (Samara Weaving), a young woman working at a Texas convenience store dreaming of one day making her way to South Carolina to find her estranged mother. While working she encounters Oliver (Gallner), watching as he cons the cashier out of some money. She confronts him, and that leads to a whirlwind romance as the two con their way through the Southeast.
A lot of this film's success hinges on the two leads. Gallner and Weaving are perfect together, giving us a modern Bonnie and Clyde that I reckon can stand the test of time on their own. Gallner seems to have settled into his identity as a character actor often in these gruff bad boy roles, and I loved it here. He has an undeniable allure that makes it clear to see why Caroline is drawn to him despite his clear red flags. Weaving is also obviously fantastic. She isn't in her 'scream queen' persona but you can see that ability to hit guttural emotions in some of the fearful or sad moments for her character. Any time the two get close to being caught and she starts to freak out she genuinely made me sweat with how genuine the anxiety felt. And when she isn't delivering the tense emotions? well she's charming us all of course. Her southern drawl works perfectly with the character's inert optimism, giving us a bright shining light to compliment the darker performance from Gallner. When the two are on their own; they're great, when they're together; they're just electric. This is a pretty sexy movie and I don't know if it would still have that vibe if not for the insane chemistry between these two.
Weaving and Gallner aren't the only stars though. Rehmeier is about as cool of an emerging director as you can get. You can feel the punk rock sensibilities of Dinner in America but his energy is scaled back to fit a more easygoing southern vibe, making this a really just enjoyable time for most of the runtime. When things get tense though, he crafts some truly gritty tension. I also have to applaud the script, the duo delivering all the dialogue are great but they also have a very fun and well written script to work off of. Lastly I have to praise the music. The film is set in the 90s but with a bit of a 70s style, and the music works perfectly in blending the two eras together. In case it weren't clear, I really loved this. Carolina Caroline is the kind of movie I think you can recommend to damn near anyone, offering a fun thrilling time with a great romance at the heart of it. 4/5
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