Review: ‘Bad Match’ unleashes a fatal attraction for the Tinder set
“Fatal Attraction” provides the obvious inspiration for writer-director David Chirchirillo’s revenge thriller “Bad Match,” which updates the classic ’80s anti-romance for the Tinder age. Like its predecessor, at its best “Bad Match” takes the common misunderstandings and diverging expectations of dating and sex and turns them into all-too-relatable nightmares.
Jack Cutmore-Scott plays Harris, a commitment-phobic tech-bro who uses his favorite hook-up app to bed a different woman almost every night — always assuming his partners are just as interested in “keeping it casual.” Lili Simmons plays Riley, a knockout who obsessively texts Harris after their one-night-stand, certain she’s too sexy for him to reject.
Chirchirillo smartly refuses to clarify whether Riley’s unhinged or whether she’s just incapable of reading Harris’s cues that he’d rather be left alone. Even after Harris begins to suffer what appears to be an aggressive campaign to ruin his life — prompting him to lash out at Riley — “Bad Match” leaves open the possibility that he’s grossly misreading the situation.
The movie runs out of places to go after an hour and descends into a violent standoff that’s stylishly shot but narratively pat. (To be fair, “Fatal Attraction” had the same problem.)
Still, thanks to good performances by Cutmore-Scott and Simmons — and good writing by Chirchirillo — “Bad Match” effectively explores the everyday horror that comes from people treating their fellow human beings as interchangeable playthings.
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Not rated
Running time: 1 hour, 23 minutes.
Playing: Laemmle NoHo 7, North Hollywood
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