Freevee rom-com Puppy Love is the chaos watch you need right now

We all know entertainment doesn’t have to be Good to be good. The distinction here is between what’s critically acclaimed and/or universally beloved (Good) and everything else: the guilty pleasures, the hidden gems, the stuff you watch while you’re folding laundry (good). Sometimes, entertainment that’s actively bad can be actually good, if you tilt your head and have an open heart. That category includes hate watches, yes, but there’s also the chaos watch. Chaos watches are for people who are brave enough to see the merits of an unhinged CW show or find the charms in a C-grade romantic comedy. Chaos watches are for people who like to have fun!

Speaking of the CW and C-grade romantic comedies, two ex-CW actors, Grant Gustin and Lucy Hale, are the stars of Puppy Love, a C-grade romantic comedy that is the summer’s most underrated chaos watch. The film was released on Freevee, Amazon’s ad-supported VOD service, to essentially no fanfare on August 18. Freevee does not have the clout, nor apparently the marketing budget, to match the big streaming services (Prime Video must be taking up all the resources over there), so Puppy Love might have faded into obscurity if not for TikTok. On TikTok, users post clips from films like this one, one bite-size chunk at a time and get thousands of views and comments like “What movie?” Then there’s fan edits that weave together the film’s best bits set to Taylor Swift songs and helpfully advertise tropes from the movie the audience might enjoy (e.g. “Enemies to Lovers”).

@velvetfilms_ Puppy Love (2023) #puppylove #puppylovemovie #lucyhale #lucyhaleedit #grantgustin #grantgustinedit #enemiestolovers #enemiestoloverstrope #romance #romcom #edit #romancemovie ♬ Style – Velvet Films

This phenomenon might explain why Puppy Love currently sits at a 33 percent Rotten Tomatoes rating from just nine critic reviews and a 92 percent Audience Score from more than 100 user reviews. The beauty of a chaos watch is that both of these ratings feel spiritually true. It’s not that the movie is “so bad it’s good”; more like it fluctuates from good to bad to silly to strange in a way that’s sort of delightful and, yes, a lot of fun.

The chaos is anchored by solidi performances from Hale and Gustin. Hale always delivers reliably no matter the quality of the project she’s in, but Gustin is the standout—his comedy chops have never been front and center in any of his previous roles, and he makes the most of the opportunity. He plays Max, a man so neurotic you actually understand why a man with superhero good looks is single. Hale plays Nicole, a typical Girl Dirtbag who takes her selfishness and fear of commitment so far sometimes it’ll have you yelling at the screen. By the way, neither of these people is a dog owner at first. They both get their dogs at the beginning of the movie. Puppy Love gets a chaos point for that.

There are moments of genius in the script—a scene where a pharmacist yells at a cowed Gustin over trying to get his dog Plan B is sincerely laugh-out-loud funny. Other times you may find yourself laughing at, rather than with, Puppy Love. And sometimes you may be left scratching your head (the best solution to their dog custody issues is for Nicole to live on Max’s couch? Really?). Performances from the supporting cast range wildly in quality, and there’s a COVID-related plot point audiences will either find surprisingly touching or a total turn-off, depending on where you are with coronavirus popping up in your entertainment.

Regardless, Puppy Love is always entertaining. It’s actually more entertaining because of its quirks. It also leans into the genre with aplomb, deploying classic rom-com tropes like, yes, enemies to lovers. Another example: she’s an artist who had to give up her dream to take care of her dying dad; he’s a musician who gave up on his dream because, um, it was kind of hard. (Yes, we get to hear Grant Gustin sing.) At the same time, they’re unusually foul-mouthed freaks for being romantic comedy protagonists. The cutesy premise may overshadow the fact that this is an R-rated comedy. The dog birth scene alone is pretty shocking. This is a chaos watch, baby!

If you’re looking for capital-G Good, you probably won’t find yourself scrolling Freevee. But there are glimmers of Good in Puppy Love. The final look shared between Max and Nicole at the end of the film is so tender, so warm, and shot so beautifully it will have you questioning the nature of reality: “Did I just watch a genuinely amazing film?” No. You just experienced a chaos watch, which will keep you on your toes until the very last frame—which is kind of genuinely amazing in its own way. It’s not for the faint of heart, but if you give it a try, you’ll definitely have fun.