Longest Third Date

Boy and girl with similar IQ levels. She realizes the guy in front of her is different than past boyfriends. She thinks he's cool, when, in reality, he is vlogging. They realize they don't have to actually communicate feelings in order to get a superficial relationship to work. They work out long enough to get a Netflix special. Voila!

Seriously though, maybe this reality movie has a deeper meaning: if you want to make a relationship work out, do a few things. 1. Have low expectations about what you want in your partner. 2. Lock yourselves inside. 3. Drink a lot. 4. Have similarly primitive communication skills.

I remember reading about this couple during the pandemic early days. They had just started dating with two dates under their belt and only one kiss. When the guy who is always up for an adventure invites the girl on a 4 day trip to Costa Rica she hesitates but decides to go. What can happen? He does not give off murder vibes or anything. So they go in an almost empty airplane. Others are pandemic worried but they aren't. Within a couple of days they realize that things are getting bad in New York City where they are from. Then their flight gets cancelled. We watch them navigate being alone together for a long time with someone they barely know. It's a struggle at first. Neither is looking for love or a relationship. I found it to be a simple story that ended up fascinating, to me at least. The guy filmed everything so all the film footage is real. It was good.

I remember originally reading about this story in the New York Post in 2020 during the pandemic, and thought it was pretty cool. Then I recently saw a follow-up in The Post, and was happy to see that they were still together. Then I was surprised to see that the reason for the update was that a documentary about their time in Costa Rica was going to be on Netflix!

This had not been reviewed by many critics, and with so many things to stream, I usually like to see positive reviews before committing to something like this. But it was only 75 minutes long, and I did like the whole idea of it, so my wife and I decided to give it a shot.

First of all, the footage is great, because Matt, the guy in this relationship, is a vlogger, so he recorded much of their Costa Rican trip. Who knew that it would be gold, and a documentary would come out of it?

It's just a very sweet story. I'm not sure who made the editorial choices for this documentary, but this very easily could have become quite salacious, but that's not the direction it took. Because he is doing all the filming, Matt exerted a bit of control in how he would look in this documentary, because he is choosing what he wants to film and not to film. Khani didn't have that choice. Still, they showed her in a very positive light. Good for the filmmakers. I'm sure there is a good deal of footage that would be embarrassing to release out to the world. None of that is shown.

I'm not saying it would be Pamela Anderson/Tommy Lee stuff, but I'm sure there is footage of them being drunk and/or naked that is no one else's business. Who's on their best behavior 24/7 anyway?

When I am writing this review, they are still together. They need to do what is best for themselves, but it's hard not to root for them and their relationship lasting.

7.5 stars.

This film is a mouthful to be sure, a reality TV show of sorts, meets a vlogger on an escapade, meets Netflix Documentary. I was intrigued with this from the get go. Something about the authenticity of it all and the timing was really cool. Was this all real, it appears to be so. Did it all happen the way it's presented to us and the raw footage was utilized and edited into a documentary format? I'm convinced the answer is: yes. Did this girl and guy eventually fall in love organically (albeit they had no choice)? It looks like it. I don't know what else to say but it's an interesting little film with lots of footage taken from his vlog, if it's really authentic. If it's not authentic, then whatever, I was still entertained enough to round up to an 8.

An unplanned reality show. Better than a real reality show because it all happened so naturally. Very cute couple living through a fantasy vacation while experiencing the ups and downs of being forced to fast track getting to know each other, and falling in love in the process. The plot is like something out of a Disney movie except there is no villain.

Nice to see something so uplifting once in a while. No crazy turns or cliff hangers, just two people falling in love unexpectedly and growing as people in the process due to a series of random and unpredictable pandemic related events. At least something good came out of covid.