The director Raine Allen-Miller’s debut feature, “Rye Lane,” is self-assured in a way that recent, by-the-numbers rom-coms from the likes of Netflix have shied away from. Whereas some films make the mistake of equating “crowd-pleasing” with “generic,” Allen-Miller brings us right into the heart of South London alongside her characters. Every detail of the film is full of specificity, even as the dreams and insecurities of its two leads are ubiquitous genre staples.
The meet-cute, however, is decidedly 2023: Dom (David Jonsson), clearly upset over a recent breakup, goes to have a private cry in a restroom stall at his friend’s art gallery opening, only to realize with embarrassment that the facilities are gender-neutral. The woman who walks in on him, Yas (Vivian Oparah), tries to reassure him through the stall door to no avail, but she later recognizes Dom out on the gallery floor from his pink Converse. The twist? Dom doesn’t recognize her voice.
Before long, the two are bonding over the ways their respective exes wronged them — Dom’s partner cheated on him with his best friend, and Yas’s boyfriend, a pretentious sculptor, kept her treasured A Tribe Called Quest LP after she walked out on him, even though he scoffs at hip-hop. Spurred by their mutual heartbreak, Dom and Yas end up racing around London together, by foot and by moped, looking to settle the scores of their old relationships and growing closer as a result.
“Rye Lane” finds familiar footing in bespoke rom-coms of years past. There’s Dom and Yas’s symbolic color coordination — his pink shoes match her shoulder bag — that channels the red-and-blue outfit motifs found in Paul Thomas Anderson’s “Punch-Drunk Love.” And the whole structure of the two characters walking-and-talking their way through the neighborhood is an obvious nod to Richard Linklater’s “Before” trilogy. But the film also takes cues from snappier sources, like the British cult hit “Peep Show” or even Edgar Wright’s “Scott Pilgrim vs. the World.”
Fast-paced flashbacks and quippy dialogue — including some true laugh-out-loud one-liners — keep a sense of momentum that carries itself throughout the film. And Allen-Miller isn’t afraid to be stylistically daring, with wide-angle lenses that follow Dom and Yas along city blocks, oddly dressed extras walking in and out of the frame, and eye-popping set designs around every corner. Yas’s memory of her ex-boyfriend’s apartment is very different from the real location we see later on, but both equally resemble a set dresser’s playground, stuffed to the brim with detail.
Still, that liveliness wouldn’t feel genuine if not for its setting. The screenwriters of “Rye Lane,” Nathan Bryon and Tom Melia, have credited Allen-Miller for the film’s honed-in focus on the neighborhoods of Peckham and Brixton — it was originally going to be set in Camden Market — that show off an eye for style mixed with the comforting. Whether it’s a date at a late-night chicken shop, a neon-lit karaoke bar, a Jamaican auntie’s backyard barbecue or the Peckhamplex movie theater on Rye Lane itself, the environments that Dom and Yas stumble through, and fall in love within, resemble a candy-colored interpretation of daily life in South London. This isn’t the kind of film to watch for in-depth commentary on the area’s rapid gentrification. But its primarily Black cast reflects who has lived in South London for decades, and Allen-Miller depicts the mix of aging residents and young artistic upstarts with the knowingness of someone who’s been in the heart of the melting pot.
As Dom and Yas get to know each other over the evening, or several evenings — the film, at a tight 82 minutes, is purposely vague about how much time lapses between scenes — their mission to get back at lost love soon bumps up against an inevitable obstacle: being unable to move on. Setting itself apart from past British rom-coms like “Notting Hill” and “Love, Actually” (the latter of which gets a brief but memorable tribute here), “Rye Lane” isn’t afraid to depict its leads as young, brash and still coming into their own. Post-breakup, Dom has moved back in with his mother, playing video games while she makes him eggs and soldiers for breakfast. Yas, who initially looks like the more mature of the two, has a rude awakening to the fact that hopping on a scooter and riding away from her problems won’t make them vanish.
It’s not a spoiler to say that at its conclusion, “Rye Lane” comes together as only the best rom-coms can, with one of those classic payoffs that’s designed to have you cheering at the movie screen. How Allen-Miller chooses to balance those moments with the unconventional is one of the film’s greatest strengths.
Rye Lane
Rated R for raunchy humor and low-res nudes. Running time: 1 hour 22 minutes. Watch on Hulu.
