April Movies Part 2: Rye Lane & Tetris

Would you rather not leave your house? Well then, streaming services have your cinematic needs covered. Pull up your Hulu or AppleTV+ accounts and settle in for a treat.

Rye Lane: Have you been seeking a sweet, fun, British romcom? Even if you haven’t, you should now, because Rye Lane is a lovely entry into the genre. Vivian Oparah and David Jonsson star as Yas and Dom, two people who meet at an art show under decidedly odd circumstances and then proceed to have one long magical day, Before Sunrise-style, where they walk through London and talk about their lives, their past relationship trauma, and their hopes for the future. What starts out as platonic friendship of course starts to morph into something more but these two are still dealing with a lot of grievances with their exes and may not quite be ready to move on.

Written by Nathan Bryon and Tom Melia, and directed by Raine Allen-Miller, this movie is charming and beautiful, making London glow with promise and making me immediately want to book a trip across the Pond. Oparah and Jonsson have splendid chemistry and they do splendid banter for 90 mins straight, which is truly what we should all demand from every single romcom. And if that wasn’t enough to entice you, there is a brilliant cameo halfway through this movie that gives it the perfect British romcom polish. So head off to Rye Lane for an absolutely delightful day of adventure and romance. 

Tetris: I had no idea what I was going to get with this movie but boy did it deliver. Set in 1988, this is the true story of how Henk Rogers (Taron Egerton) ran into someone marketing Tetris at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas and decided to buy the licensing rights in Japan for PC, console, and arcade. However, the game had originated in the Soviet Union, created by a man named Alexey Pajitnov (Nikita Efremov), and the worldwide licensing rights (ex Japan) were sold to a British media mogul in a convoluted fashion that would set the stage for a battle over intellectual property, handheld gaming rights, and an ideological standoff between communism and capitalism as the KGB starts to intervene in the business dealings. That’s right, this movie takes a hell of a turn. 

Written by Noah Pink and directed by Jon S. Baird, this is a twisty, funny, thrill-a-minute movie that keeps you thoroughly entertained for two hours straight. The finale is a very Hollywoodized version of the truth, but Rogers and Pajitnov actually existed, ultimately did found The Tetris Company, and now are producers of this film, so it’s not complete hogwash. It’s a wonderful story of how interconnected we all are in this era of globalization. It's a great tale about rapidly evolving technology and gaming and greedy corporate overlords. And somehow it’s also a spy thriller that involves the Iron Curtain and the KGB and Mikhail Gorbachev. By the time you’re done, you will be bopping along to the amazing score by Lorne Balfe and desperately want to play some Tetris. Mission accomplished.