By Geno McGahee
I love the topic of catfishing. I watch every Dr. Phil episode if it has to do with catfishing. Now, don’t get me wrong. I hate those that catfish and take advantage of people, but I find it so interesting. I don’t know why I like it so much because I hate it when I get obvious catfishers trying to contact me on social media.
LOVE HARD is a Netflix movie about catfishing and it’s getting some controversy because some contend that it puts a positive spin on catfishing and to those that are bitching about this, I must say piss off. Why is everything a fucking problem? I don’t know what goes through somebody’s mind that goes through the trouble to contact a streaming service and bitch it out over bullshit. Get a life.
Natalie (Nina Dobrev) is unlucky in love, but she’s using a dating app to try to make things better, but the selection isn’t very good. She is also trying to make her job as a writer better but her boss, Lee (Matty Finochio), doesn’t have a lot of faith in her. Finochio is a really funny actor and it finally hit me where I knew him from. He was the clerk in JINGLE ALL THE WAY 2.
The dating app brings her to Josh and the two hit it off. She decides to surprise him for Christmas and show up at his house and that’s when she discovers that she was catfished. Josh (Jimmy O. Yang) is a black sheep in his family, living in the shadow of his brother, Owen (Harry Shum JR), and is totally unlucky in love. He used a picture of Tag (Darren Barnet) to lure Natalie in but it blows up in his face when she actually does show up.
Natalie is enraged when she discovers that she’s been tricked, but a deal is soon met where she will pretend to be Josh’s girlfriend. In return, Josh will help set her up with Tag. It works well at first, but Natalie starts to see life from Josh’s perspective and how he is the outcast of his family and starts understanding him more and more. The two start to become friends despite the strange way that they met.
There seemed to be some emphasis on taking shots at the song “BABY IT’S COLD OUTSIDE.” I remember when this tune came under fire by people with too much time on their hands and this is more of it. Now, I never liked the song, but I never saw the whole rape thing in there, but they made it a point to point it out several times here. At one point, Josh and Natalie sing it, changing the lyrics to be non-offensive. This movie was doing so good too and then they decided to put some bullshit commentary into it. Why the fuck didn’t they go after that song GRANDMA GOT RAN OVER BY A REINDEER? I hate the fucking song. If they went after that tune, I’d be all for it. If they have time, they can tear into DOMINICK THE DONKEY too.
As time goes on, Natalie starts seeing how shallow Tag is and she begins feeling guilty for lying about her relationship with Josh to his family. Owen is being a king douche too, jealous of any attention that his younger brother is getting. He sets out to expose the relationship if he can.
LOVE HARD is a good film even though it’s predictable. The cast is very strong and there are some laughs to be had. The biggest laugh I had was when Lee was using the shake weights to work out. It was so absurd and funny. Dobrev and Yang are very likable and the film is paced very well, leading to the obvious conclusion.
I recommend LOVE HARD. It doesn’t make me feel all festive or full of the holiday spirit watching it, but it does a good job as a romance/comedy and was pretty good throughout. Watch it, but if you’re offended, shut it off. Then again, I bitched about that whole BABY IT’S COLD OUTSIDE change of lyrics. Maybe I need to shut the fuck up.
