Two youngsters reeling from bad breakups who connect over an eventful day in South-London.

The rom-com is possibly the most derided of genres and that isn’t entirely unfair when you look at the sparsity of good ones in the past few years, but every so often a movie like ‘Rye Lane’ comes along and injects new life into the genre in this sparky debut feature from Raine Allen-Miller. Set in Peckham and Brixton, ‘Rye Lane’ is a vibrant, natural and lived-in romantic comedy that follows two South Londoners who spend a day together while coming to terms with the messy break-ups of their previous relationships. It’s rare to see a debut feature that feels so confident and fully formed right out the gate, but ‘Rye Lane’ is funny, edgy and really, really likeable.

‘Rye Lane’ begins with Dom (David Jonsson) crying in a toilet at an art exhibition where he’s overheard by Yas (Vivian Oparah). She introduces herself to him and they find themselves sharing details of their lives and past relationships over the course of a day, finding common ground and a connection with each other as they do so. The chemistry between Oparah and Jonsson is off the charts which helps massively, with Oparah in particular an absolute standout as the bubbly and energetic Yas. I liked that it was set in parts of London that tend to only be seen on screens in crime thrillers, with Allen-Miller bringing the markets, people and streets of South London brilliantly to life, and I liked the ‘Peep Show’ style camerawork that is just the right level of in your face.

The story unfolds nicely over a perfectly paced 80 minutes and I felt the romance between Yas and Dom developed naturally, with each experience they have together acting as a building block to the inevitable connection. Perhaps more importantly, the ‘com’ element of ‘Rye Lane’ is really strong and this is a genuinely funny movie, with lively supporting characters and several laugh out loud moments. Quite often a rom-com focuses on either the romance or the comedy at the expense of the other, but in ‘Rye Lane’ everything clicks and I thought this was a really entertaining romantic comedy.

Rating: 4/5

Directed By: Raine Allen-Miller

Starring: Vivian Oparah, David Jonsson, Alice Hewkin, Munya Chawawa, Simon Manyonda, Karene Peter, Benjamin Sarpong-Broni, Poppy Allen-Quarmby, Malcolm Atobrah and Omari Douglas

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt15893750/