Rating: 3.5/5 stars

If you have ever been interested in watching Joe Keery (“Stranger Things”) “gaslight, gatekeep, girlboss,” this movie may be for you. The newly released film “Marmalade,” which was both directed and written by Keir O’Donnell (“The Dry”), features Joe Keery, Camila Morrone (“Daisy Jones & The Six”) and Aldis Hodge (“The Underground”) as the movie’s three main characters. This new comedy crime-drama definitely adds some flavor to the current 2024 movie selection, and it would be inaccurate to say the movie does not stand out or hold its own. In fact, the movie actually marks Keir O’Donnells directorial debut. Along with including the well-liked Joe Keery and two other decently known actors, Hodge and Morrone, this movie is special in how unique it is with both its director and its casting. 

As far as casting goes, the acting in this movie is refreshing. The performances were eccentric and emotional, and watching the film you can tell the cast had a great time filming. There was a good mix of funny and charming with dramatic and tense, which made the experience nothing less than enjoyable throughout the duration of the film. 

Back to the topic of the director, this movie was a great start for the aspiring director and screenwriter Keir O’Donnell. While “Marmalade” is his directorial debut, he wrote one other film in 2013, being “A Case of You.” The film scored 5.6/10 stars on IMDb, only a little behind IMDb’s rating of “Marmalade” (that being 6.1/10 stars); there is definitely no arguing that O’Donnell has talent that is deserving of recognition.

That being said, there are still some criticisms to be had. Following the movie’s big plot twist, there is the “ending” of the movie that does not really feel like the ending but more like a bonus segment. A lot of the final scenes of the film do not feel necessary. The movie could have ended at the moment of the plot twist and it would not have changed anything. The film still would have been great. The scenes were not bad or lacking in drama. The end of the film was good in itself, but the flow of the movie felt really wavy towards the end. It is as if O’Donnell wanted to give one of our main characters a backstory that he forgot to write into the original story and thought to really quickly give him one at the very end. It completely took me off guard, and I was just confused that the movie had not ended yet. 

It is also important to mention that even though the movie is good, there are many films that are similar to it in terms of plot. The details in the story are original, but there are a couple aspects of the main plot that reminds me of other movies I have watched only recently. This point may seem like a stretch as no film is truly “original,” however as mentioned above it felt like I had seen the movie before, despite it being the first time I had watched it. 

Image from Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons