Supergirl (in theaters)

Great characters are a delight to watch, but they need a good script backing them up. 

Sadly, that doesn’t happen in “Supergirl.” Milly Alcock is pitch-perfect as Kara Zor-El (a.k.a. Supergirl), the only survivor of Krypton who actually remembers it. Jason Momoa is also a ton of fun as Lobo, an intergalactic troublemaker who runs across Kara. If the rest of the movie had been nearly as interesting or engaging as these two, it could have been a great movie. 

Kara was actually a teenager when Krypton was destroyed, but because of time dilation shenanigans arrives at earth several years later than her cousin Clark Kent (a.k.a. Superman). She also hasn’t aged, which means she clearly remembers her parents and planet and is still messed up about losing them. That explains the drinking and the planet-hopping, and means we get a great plot arc of coming to terms with grief and finding her inner heroism. 

Alcock nails this wonderfully, navigating through her character’s darkness while still staying entertainingly watchable. She’s also got a strong Debbie Harry-energy that keeps things fun and gives her a great onscreen chemistry with Momoa’s Lobo. I would love a movie or series that was just the two of them tooling around the universe together, causing trouble and helping people in the most chaotic way possible. 

Sadly, that isn’t this movie. The plot development fails to live up to either the leads or the awesome sets, and though Matthias Schoenaerts tries his hardest he can’t manage to make his big bad register as interesting. This leaves the movie feeling wildly imbalanced, a setting that can’t live up to the jewel at the center. 

Grade: Two and a half stars

Voicemails for Isabelle (Netflix)

There are so many different kinds of love. 

“Voicemails for Isabelle” is really the fusion of two different love stories – the central romance, and the even more central bond between the leading lady, Jill, and her little sister Isabelle. Though the sister dies early on, the movie rapidly develops a touching bond between the two that makes Jill’s grief achingly believable. Their relationship also serves as a strange but ultimately engaging springboard for the romance, with excellent performances bringing a surprising amount of heart. It’s definitely anchored in a lot of classic romance tropes, but there’s so much emotion it turns it into something much more genuine and real.

The plot focuses on Jill (Zoey Deutch), a San Francisco prep cook who keeps leaving messages on her sister’s voicemail after her death. That number now belongs to Wes, a real estate shark who falls in love with Jill through the voicemails. Even though he arranges for them to meet, he doesn’t tell her about the voicemails. 

Deutch is fantastic as Jill, nailing everything from grief to determination to lighter comedic moments. Robinson conquers his own challenges Wes, since the character is utterly unethical on paper. The actor solves this by acknowledging it, then showing the hapless desperation of a manipulator drowning in a wave of genuine feeling. 

They say that grief is love with no place to go. Sometimes, though, it just grows.

Grade: Three stars

Jenniffer Wardell is an award-winning movie critic and member of the Denver Film Critics Society and the Utah Film Critics Association. Drop her a line at [email protected].