'Barbarian's First Act Is Still a Perfect Rom-Com If You Ignore the Rest

Some movies masquerade as something else entirely at first, like Zach Cregger's wildly popular Barbarian(2022),which surprises the viewer a fair few times. Ignore everything else: the underground labyrinths, body horror, and generational trauma lurking beneath a Detroit rental property, and what remains as the first act is a perfectly constructed romantic comedy. The film's opening scenes operate as a textbook first encounter scenario that would make romantic filmmaking queen Nancy Meyers proud, complete with all the genre's ingredients: an awkward situation, attractive strangers, fizzing chemistry and enough sexual tension to power the entire state of Michigan.