The Broken Hearts Gallery

This is a snappy, sensational romantic comedy with a wonderfully optimistic main character. The quirky premise about a young woman who physically can't let go of the past, stubbornly holding on to little items from her exes, is completely sold by Viswanathan. When we first meet Lucy, it's not under the best of circumstances: She's having trouble moving on after a breakup and isn't taking it well. But Viswanathan's magnetic personality lets us see the humanity behind Lucy's obsessiveness and absolutely fall in love with her: This is the friend you want by your side. Together with her sympathetic and protective friends Amanda (Molly Gordon) and Nadine (Phillipa Soo), they're an ideal trio -- together for the tough times while also lovingly calling each other out on their nonsense.

Writer-director Natalie Krinsky looks like she could be that once-in-a-decade voice who captures her generation -- and her gender -- with smart, witty dialogue; she's stepping into the footprints left by Lena Dunham, Diablo Cody, and Nora Ephron. Her characters have an aspirational patter, but, at the same time, it's exactly how today's 20-somethings talk. With an irreverent, feminist self-awareness, expressed via barbs about patriarchal society and men who are baffled by how to respond to unwarranted accusations, it's all so of the moment. At times, some of the acting comes off a little weak -- likely the result of Krinsky being a first-time director -- but it's completely forgivable as she delivers a fantastically fun film. Like many love stories aimed at women, it's a female fantasy in many ways -- that our ideas are accepted, that our opinions are valued, that we're loved and accepted for who we are as we are -- but that's how we change the world, right? If life imitates art, Lucy's world is a nice place to live.