The end of September was buzzing with Prime Video’s latest film, The Love Hypothesis. The film stars Lili Reinhart, who got her break as Betty Cooper in the CW’s Riverdale. With this film, Reinhart joins Riverdale co-stars Camila Mendes and Madelaine Petsch in having their own romantic comedy on the streaming services. In my personal opinion, this is where they rank.
Upgraded (2024)
Since I can’t contain my excitement, I’ll start with Upgraded (2024). The film follows Ana Santos (Camila Mendes) as a struggling art intern turned assistant. She is given the opportunity to travel to London with her boss and two other assistants to secure an art collection. When the other assistants try to give Ana a flight in economy that leaves hours later than theirs, the desk employee upgrades her to first class.
There, she bumps into William, spilling her drink on him. Not a great first impression. Later, we see that they are sitting together and begin to flirt. She allows William to think she is the director of the company after he assumes her position, thinking she won’t see him again. In London, his mother, a well-known figure ,picks him up and offers Ana a ride. She accepts and they part ways, only to reunite again after she realizes that she left her laptop in the car.
From there, the two begin to see each other regularly. Ana fields some work calls while she’s with William who assists her with the connection of his mother when she struggles to gain access to certain things like theater performances. Over the course of the movie, I was able to see Ana’s journey as her own character, as well as a build up and real development of her relationship with William. With William assuming she’s the director, the tension of anticipation was built up for when he would inevitably find out the truth. I felt like they balanced each other out and worked well together.
Maintenance Required (2025)
This film stars Madelaine Petsch playing Charlie O’Malley, who inherits her father’s auto shop after he passes away. The shop is women-run at this point and a local business. When car company chain Miller Boys opens up across the street, it becomes a fight to see if Charlie will be able to outdo their public appeal.
In her private life, Charlie has been chatting anonymously with someone online. They bond over their passion for cars and reveal more personal feelings about work life and family. Unbeknownst to the two of them, they have met in person. Charlie has been talking to Beau, who happens to be a Miller Boy. Since the site is anonymous, they don’t know what they look like or each other’s real names.
I had a tough time deciding how this movie would rank.When I first watched it, I had issues with the lack of strong relationships between the women who owned the shop. In addition, I carried disdain for what happened with Charlie’s shop. However, the reason I placed it second is because while there were plot moments that were a mess, I still felt the build up of the relationship.
Seeing Charlie and Beau interact in real life and on the side anonymously brought an interesting dynamic to me as a viewer. Once again, there was something for me to anticipate. Not only waiting to see when they’d find out that they were already talking to each other all along, but how they dealt with the emotions of their job they work as individuals, and how that connects with those around them in their environment.
The Love Hypothesis (2026)
Last but not least, the most recent of the three films, The Love Hypothesis. This is a book-to-film adaptation of the bestselling novel of the same name. During the pandemic, it made waves on BookTok, and as aforementioned, Reinhart stars in the film. Her character Olive Smith is an aspiring scientist in a PhD program. She becomes friends with a girl named Anh on her first day and later develops a crush on classmate Jeremy. After walking in on Anh and Jeremy close to having a moment, she convinces Anh that she no longer has feelings for him so that Anh is free to pursue things with him. When Anh doesn’t believe her, Olive says she’s seeing someone already.
That evening, Olive is working in the lab. She sees Anh entering the building and rushes to kiss the first person she sees in order to throw Anh off. That person happens to be Dr. Adam Carlsen, a postdoctoral fellow. Olive explains her actions and the next day he calls her into his office. He says that they should in fact fake date to help Anh begin things with Jeremy, and so that he will be taken seriously for a grant.
From here, the audience sees different settings where Olive and Adam have to pretend to be a couple, which is both endearing and comedic. Their relationship also grows over time, but I didn’t feel the growth as much as I saw it. I didn’t quite see yearning on either end and instead saw two people who were in a circumstantial relationship that occasionally opened up. They mostly spoke of big picture things like Olive’s mom dying of cancer and that being the reason she went into the field. As for Adam, he says he didn’t set out to be strict, but his mentor was harder on him. I think if the film was longer or included a bit more emotional moments it would’ve changed how I saw the development of the couple.
These women overall played their roles beautifully. I could not be happier to see them in the same place again, even if they’re not acting alongside each other.
Upgraded, Maintenance Required, and The Love Hypothesis are available on Prime Video.