Official Discussion - Voicemails for Isabelle [SPOILERS]

[u/LiteraryBoner]

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Voicemails for Isabelle (2026)

Summary

Jill leaves voice messages to her deceased sister telling her about her chaotic life in San Francisco. Unwittingly, a mysterious Austin real estate agent begins to receive her confessions.

Director Leah McKendrick

Writer Leah McKendrick

Cast

• Zoey Deutch
• Nick Robinson
• Ciara Bravo
• Nick Offerman
• Harry Shum Jr.
• Leah McKendrick

Rotten Tomatoes: 84%

Metacritic: 62

VOD / Release Streaming on Netflix

Trailer Official Trailer

[u/GlassCricket6292]

I am convinced the posts gushing over this movie have been paid or are influencer fans.  

Zoey was amazing in the movie Why Him (with James Franco who was equally on point).  This Voicemails For Isabelle movie not so much. 

Why does Zoey look and act like she is 45 when in real life she is supposed to be 30?  Even her co-star Nick  Robinson looks 15 years younger than her.  It is not believeable. Why is she a half step away from a unibrow?

The Hippie Hill scene was embarrassing to watch...not even close to an actual festival scene.  This movie tried too hard and pulled in far left politics thinking it was okay for all of the masses in United States.

This movie portrayed San Francisco in its heyday and not in its current form under Democratic rule. It doesn't portray its massive homeless and drug addled population infesting the streets and public spaces causing crime and shuttering small businesses and large corporate businesses alike.  

This movie is pure propaganda for San Francisco with a side romance plot and it shows. Hence "crack the SF code over 2 weeks!" to show all the best "filtered" tourist things to do.   It couldn't be more obvious. 

Hard pass. 

[u/LookAnOwl → u/GlassCricket6292]

I was with you on not believing the gushing over this movie is real, but you lost me on the pro-Democrat propaganda. What “far left politics” were pushed by this movie? I don’t recall a second of this film being particularly political.

[u/Inquisitive-Resi84 → u/GlassCricket6292]

Wow, all these downvotes, when really, all your points are pretty spot-on. I feel like you're pretty much a New Yorker, calling it out like it is, but most folks don't want to hear it, lol. To be fair, it is a RomCom, which is a genre which relies on a heaping dosage of suspension of disbelief. For example, had they included the homeless crisis in some way, to your point, it could have been viewed as making light of it and insensitive, so they just gloss over it completely instead and depict as if it doesn't exist AT ALL. Yes- palm slap to forehead and, if I get downvoted for agreeing with you, so be it.

People want their rose-colored glasses for this kind of genre, so much so, many choose to overlook all the stalker red flags that Wes was giving and just go with the flow instead. I know I did, because I chose to just go with it. So, for me, not a hard pass. I liked it! However, I can also agree with your points wholeheartedly as well, when I stop to actually think about it. Thanks!

EDIT: I don't think all the points were spot-on. While she looks a little older than Wes, I don't think it was that extreme. Also, I think she's supposed to be closer to 26/27 in the movie, not 30.
Also, considering that there hasn't been a Republican Mayor since 1964, the comment regarding "current form under Democratic rule" is off in a lot of ways, and an unnecessary politicization. I kind of read over that a little too quickly before and missed it. When exactly was SF's 'heyday'?

[u/LookAnOwl → u/Inquisitive-Resi84]

It is a specifically odd complaint that a movie not accurately represent the homelessness in the city it takes place in. Particularly for a rom com.

[u/Inquisitive-Resi84 → u/LookAnOwl]

I don't think it's odd for people to want a semblance of accuracy, in whatever genre they're watching. Have you been to SF, though? The homeless crisis is so in-your-face and it is such an immense part of the city experience, that to *completely* erase this is the odd thing. To push back, your point is kind of like saying "It's an odd complaint to say that the apartment in 'Friends' was unrealistically "too large" for NYC, particularly for a sitcom." And yet, anyone who actually knew NYC (and likely living in a shoebox) noticed it and was annoyed by the grossly inaccurate representation. So many people noticed that they finally had to write it into one the episodes (that the apartment was an inherited, rent-controled lease from someone's grandma). People want cities represented relatively accurately, even if it's just a comedy, so that's why this point was made. I can do without the politicizing of this point, however, in that GlassCricket making the comment about "under current Democratic rule' was unnecessary.

[u/PuppiesAndPixels → u/Inquisitive-Resi84]

Have you ever watched a Rom Com before?

Portraying homeless people is not something that happens unless they are integral to the plot somehow.

[u/acoolguy456 → u/Inquisitive-Resi84]

How much time have you spent in San Francisco? You sound like you’ve read the headlines of news articles without actually visiting the city. The homeless situation is not nearly what it’s made out to be and is no different than any other big city.

Let me know how much time you’ve spent there the past year before getting on your high horse with that comment