{"id":47125,"date":"2025-04-04T00:01:25","date_gmt":"2025-04-04T04:01:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=47125"},"modified":"2025-04-02T01:09:59","modified_gmt":"2025-04-02T05:09:59","slug":"step-back-doors-closing-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2025\/04\/04\/step-back-doors-closing-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"Step Back, Doors Closing (2025)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Telling the love story of Ryan and Julissa, two wayward Gen Z souls who happen to have their meet cute aboard the DC Metro system,\u00a0Step<\/span>\u00a0Back<\/span>, Doors Closing is a study of young love, rebounding, connecting, and coming of age beyond our teen years. The problem is, that’s about all there is to it.<\/div>\n
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Writer and director Carter Ward does a fabulous job of framing each scene in a way that draws you in, and his writing is touching, cute, and endearing. Unfortunately, it isn’t quite enough to pull the whole thing together and make it into the unforgettable film about love in the modern age that it so obviously wants to be.<\/span><\/div>\n
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While the performances are fairly enjoyable and believable from both Carmen Berkeley and Reilly Walters, and the film itself is shot in a way that highlights the beauty of the locations, there’s an element missing from the film overall that impedes it from achieving true greatness. Taking some rather obvious pointers from Before Sunrise, but still managing to feel like a fresh and more modern take on the story, the runtime starts to feel as though it’s overstaying its welcome, even at under 2 hours, because unfortunately the stakes just aren’t high enough, and there’s not much the film has to say for itself, either.<\/div>\n
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Where Before Sunrise, and even other lower concept walk and talk love stories of recent years like Past Lives or Midnight in Paris, managed to excel with witty dialogue and an impending \u201cticking clock\u201d on the relationship,\u00a0Step<\/span>\u00a0Back<\/span>, Doors Closing falls just short somehow, with that missing retirement proving to be the one thing the film doesn’t have in its corner. It feels like the film touches on things it wants to say, but perhaps it’s too scared or too restrained to fully say them, even with the White House in full view. And while we’re told things about these characters and their lives, it feels oddly like we’re being kept at arm’s length from their actual existences, leaving us feeling disconnected and more like a third wheel.<\/div>\n
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The cinematography and editing are spectacular, as well, and I believe the filmmakers and artists who put their efforts into the film are talented beyond measure, but there’s something holding\u00a0Step<\/span>\u00a0Back<\/span>, Doors Closing\u00a0back<\/span>\u00a0from its full potential, which is truly a shame considering how much potential the film has as a whole.<\/div>\n
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With an enthusiastic Uber driver, drunk best friends, and the obligatory \u201cbroken heart syndrome\u201d effect, if had all the makings of a romantic dramedy that could’ve found a way into the hearts of the masses if it had only managed to be more engaging and offer a stronger viewpoint on modern life. While love is an age-old and timeless concept, the perception of it in today’s era is one not seen before, and worth addressing with a unique and unabashed rawness that this film doesn’t have. Instead, it paints everything as slightly too clean, slightly too happy, and slightly too unrealistic. It’s a feel good movie that doesn’t actually resonate enough to make you feel good.<\/div>\n
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Perhaps most disappointing of all is the fact that it comes close to being unique, and there’s nothing more heart-rending than a film that could’ve been so much better if it would’ve shucked off the restraints for a more realistic viewpoint, and squanders talent and potential into a wholly forgettable experience that should’ve been better.<\/div>\n
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I like\u00a0Step<\/span>\u00a0Back<\/span>, Doors Closing. But it hurts knowing that I wanted to love it and I just couldn’t.<\/div>\n
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Telling the love story of Ryan and Julissa, two wayward Gen Z souls who happen to have their meet cute aboard the DC Metro system,\u00a0Step\u00a0Back, Doors Closing is a study of young love, rebounding, connecting, and coming of age beyond our teen years. The problem is, that’s about all there is to it.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[302,874],"class_list":["post-47125","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-movie-reviews","tag-drama","tag-romance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47125","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47125"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47125\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47138,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47125\/revisions\/47138"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47125"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47125"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47125"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}