“Rye Lane” Revives RomComs with a Wide-Angled Approach to Crafting a Love Story

The new film brings life back to the genre by taking thoughtful care in constructing a setting and community

Following the lead of filmmakers like Spike Lee and Elia Suleiman, director Raine Allen-Miller embeds the rhythms and melodies of a neighborhood into a film, hyper-stylizing South London’s city streets into a canvas. Upon this canvas, Allen-Miller crafts Rye Lane, a melange of classic genre tropes and oblique stylistic direction that breaks the mold of the former. 

In the South London neighborhood of Peckham, two twenty-somethings converge following bad breakups and spend a chaotic day wandering the streets of the city, helping each other process and express their respective romantic pasts. Rye Lane uses the tried-and-true emotional groundwork of a romcom to pin down its structure, and then divulges entirely from the genre standard with snappy dialogue, a percussive soundtrack, and anti-naturalist visuals. 

Rye Lane begins with a classic meet-cute: Dom (David Jonsson), reeling in the bathroom from his last breakup, is interrupted by Yas (Vivian Oparah), who, concerned for his wellbeing, decides to accompany him for a day around Peckham. The two realize that the catharsis of opening up to a complete stranger was the exact kind of emotional upheaval that each needed to move forward. 

As Dom and Yas navigate and unpack their emotions with each other, they weave in and out of various lives across South London. Rye Lane’s dynamic set decoration and direction, paired with cinematographer Olan Collardy’s jarring use of wide lenses, creates sweeping and vibrant dioramas populated with charismatic locals. Raine Allen-Miller places just as much emphasis on the individual and collective stories of Peckham as she puts on her protagonists. This is exemplified by the opening shot of the film, which pans over a series of eclectic bathroom stalls in succession, each giving a decontextualized snapshot of a stranger’s vulnerability, until the camera slows to focus on Dom. Any one of these moments could have intersected, warped, or become woven together with another, and Allen-Miller acknowledges the unspoken nuances and emotions of all the stories that create a community like South London. 

Rye Lane is an endorsement and rejuvenation of the best that a romcom can offer. It re-interprets the genre in a contemporary and refreshingly human context, exhibiting a deep care for community, conversation, and healing. By placing as much care in crafting an environment as in crafting a love story, Rye Lane is as much a romance as it is a love letter to a thriving and vibrant community.

OVERALL SCORE: 9/10

Rye Lane was released on March 31 and is currently streaming on Hulu.