Parents' Guide to Sounds Like Love

This Spanish film has the look and feel of yet another Sex and the City knock-off, but with less of the exuberance or charm. Sounds like Love is based on a book by Elisabet Benavent, a trendy Spanish author whose work has also been adapted into the very similar Netflix series Valeria. Love is full of pseudo-feminist messages about self empowerment among a friend group of three young female professionals grappling with relationships, careers, and identity. It boasts the expected mix of stylish outfits, urban settings, hip music, Instagram influencers, and lots of sex. Astute viewers will even detect some of the same settings and music as Valeria.

But it's missing the youthful joy of these other iterations, and though its characters are young, they're surprisingly bitter. The up-and-coming cast does their best with the material, but some effects forced on them fall flat, like flashbacks set in present-day scenes or multiple versions of Maca talking to herself. Maca also talks to the camera throughout, sharing knowing glances. But rather than pulling the viewer in as complicit (or as the missing fourth friend in a Sex or Valeria-like set-up), they have an acidic "told you so" vibe instead. When the main character winds up in Paris, Love also steps on the couture heels of Netflix's Emily in Paris. In sum, the material and ideas here feel overly familiar, and better versions are already streaming.