I'm torn about this movie. You feel a connection to these characters, you feel their passion, pain and frustration and the film does a great job in the emotion department however, at times it moves frustratingly slowly, the camera angle/frame/whatever is suffocatingly close and personal. The main characters are a real mess and seem to just play with each others emotions. I really don't want to believe humans can be this selfish and self-serving but who knows, maybe I'm sheltered and this is real life.

In the hands of Drake Doremus; American director of the indie circuit, Newness, is presented as a loose successor of Like Crazy (2011), in an attempt to portray in the most realistic way possible, the complexity of interpersonal relationships in the digital era, where social networks and Dating applications have set up a new way to meet people and establish links.

Nicholas Hoult stars as Martin Hallock, a young man who leaves halfway his university career to work as a pharmacist, and who, after the failure of his marriage, decides to seek new relationships without compromise in dating applications. It is there where after a failed meeting, he meets Gabi Silva -interpreted by Laia Costa-, a Spanish therapist, with whom he will establish a connection that will make them consider stable relationships and monogamy again.

Soon the couple is stifled by the complexity of the bond; issues such as infidelity and desire for the others are put into play. Although he is not very convinced, Martin decides to accept the proposal of Gabi, and go with her in the exploration of new alternatives. Establishing a communion of "open relationship", based on communication and honesty, where sex is presented as an escape route to commitment, to real involvement with the other. New ways of feeling and perceiving push the couple to develop small breaks internally and in relation to the other, which forces them to reflect on their personal desires, past determinations are reflected in the present, life projects and own decisions, generating a tense and chaotic panorama.

The film navigates the anxiety and intensity of the now, the superficiality of contemporary links and the mediation of communication through technological instruments. It raises the classical dilemma between casual relationships and stable bonds, between freedom and the oppression of the individual, love and sex. Forcing the viewer to question their own existence and their links. However, the tape remains halfway, unable to capture its objective correctly, losing its essence after 40 minutes, its "newness", resulting extremely boring and predictable.