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Ross Bonaime is the Senior Film Editor at Collider. He is a Virginia-based critic, writer, and editor who has written about all forms of entertainment for Paste Magazine, Brightest Young Things, Flickchart, The Free Lance-Star, and more. Ross graduated from George Mason University with a focus in communications and journalism and a minor in film and video studies.
Ross is a Tomatometer-approved critic, a member of the Washington DC Area Film Critics Association, and a member of the Critics Choice Association. He has loved movies ever since he saw Cinderella in the theater as a kid, he can quote 10 Things I Hate About You and Wet Hot American Summer from memory, and is fascinated by all things Georges Méliès and Charlie Chaplin.
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In 2023, writer-director Rachel Lambert released the stunning, darkly hilarious romantic drama Sometimes I Think About Dying, which centered on a character struggling to handle her anxieties enough to make her way through her life, her job, and a potential new love. With her follow-up, Carousel, Lambert continues to delve into the awkward, uncomfortable feelings we often try to keep from others, the listlessness we can fall into, and the pain of trying to love again after already losing love. Thanks to two engaging performances by Chris Pine and Jenny Slate, and Lambert’s penchant for moments we rarely see captured on screen, Carousel is a surprising and charming take on the romance film.
What Is 'Carousel' About?
Image via SundanceWhen we first meet Noah (Pine), he’s so careful with those around him that he takes the time to move a worm from behind the tire of his car so as not to run over it. As he takes his daughter Maya (Abby Ryder Fortson) to school, she gets extremely upset about leaving her schoolwork behind, but Noah knows this scenario too well and knows how to bring her back down. Noah works as a doctor at a small office in Cleveland with his father’s old partner (Sam Waterson), and it’s clear that his father’s death still leaves a weight on Noah. But Noah has also become quite deadened by a recent divorce that leaves him mostly just going through the motions in his life.
But then, Noah sees Rebecca (Slate), whom he hasn’t seen in years, and the story jumps to her perspective. We see that Rebecca is a lawyer who used to work in Washington D.C., but has moved back to Cleveland for the time being, where she coaches a high school debate team. Naturally, Maya is also on this debate team, and we quickly come to find that Noah and Rebecca have a romantic past, and it’s not long before they’re rekindling this flame. And yet, they’re both still nursing the wound of losing each other the first time, as well as reckoning with their confusion about where they’re at in their lives. They’re both at a crossroads in terms of where their lives could go, and whether that future includes each other is a major part of their confusion.
Much like Sometimes I Think About Dying, Lambert isn’t just focused on the romance that sprouts up from this story, but also tells a fully fleshed-out exploration of these central characters. So much of Carousel is watching Pine’s Noah by himself, watching his TV or playing on his phone, eating frozen pizza, or just handling the day-to-day the best he can. Meanwhile, we also get to see Slate’s Rebecca working on her new home by herself, the quieter moments with her often frustrating parents (played by Jessica Harper and Jeffrey DeMunn), as well as the emptiness she felt alone when working in D.C. It’s as though Lambert wants to show us who these two are independent of themselves, so that we know how different that might be once they are together.
In doing this, Lambert’s camera almost makes us voyeurs in their lives, together and separately. We might see a character from a strange angle, or as an independent observer from another room while our characters are having a conversation. She will also often put the action just outside the frame or focus on something entirely unexpected, as though it’s putting us in the mindset of what these characters would be thinking and looking at. For example, in one scene, Rebecca tells a friend that she’s starting to fall for Noah again, and during this conversation, Lambert cuts to a shot of the friend’s pregnant stomach, almost as though Lambert is letting us know that this is a potential future that Rebecca might have in mind with Noah.
Lambert likes to take her time not just with her characters, but with the story, letting us soak in the small-town vibe of her world, and the characters that occupy the sidelines. However, like how both these characters feel, it can come off a bit listless at times, even though it’s always beautifully shot. The secondary characters and their relationships could’ve been fleshed out just a bit more, even though they’re clearly not the focal point here. Waterson gets some nice one-on-one moments with Pine, but Noah’s mother, played by Katey Sagal, as well as Harper and DeMunn, don’t have too much to do here.
Maybe it’s because of the way this story takes its time, or maybe it’s its quiet aesthetic, but it does seem like Carousel truly thrives in the bigger moments, an exclamation point after a story that feels like ellipses. When Noah and Rebecca have to face their past and their present and what that means for both of them, Carousel really gets going, while the rest often plays like it’s just missing a little something, or that we’re not getting quite all the story that we need to make this narrative as effective as it should be.
Chris Pine and Jenny Slate Are Fantastic Together in 'Carousel'
Image via SundanceBut Carousel is tremendous when it puts Pine and Slate together in a room. Their chemistry is off the charts when their relationship heats up, and they’re a joy to watch. They really show what they’re capable of in the scenes where their frustrations and anger start to bubble back up. In Carousel’s best scene, an argument boils to the surface, and it’s clear that this isn’t just about their past relationship and the exhaustion with what happened between them, but it’s also about letting each other in on the lives that they’ve already cultivated. In moments like these, we also see just how incredible Lambert’s writing is, particularly in how natural and honest it all feels to real world relationships.
Pine is showing a vulnerability and a deep pain that we’ve never quite seen from him before. He’s a man in mourning for many different aspects of his life, and he’s just starting to realize how much of himself has been bottled up and pushed down. He’s compassionate, but also selfish; loving, but very guarded. It’s a tough balance to play without becoming almost villainous, and Pine does it wonderfully here.
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"Everything we feel, we have to put into words. Sometimes, I just want to feel things."
Matching Pine is Slate, who hasn’t had a role that she can sink her teeth into in this way since 2014’s Obvious Child (even though she’s been excellent in everything from Marcel the Shell with Shoes On to the underrated rom-com I Want You Back). Slate plays Rebecca with a much keener awareness of what Noah is hiding than he lets on, and she masterfully handles him with great care and compassion. More than Noah, she knows what they’ve both been through, how far they’ve come, and how badly she wants to maintain what they’re working towards. This is great proof that Slate should be given more leading roles like this in the future.
Carousel definitely has some rough edges on the fringes of this romance story. But when Lambert gives us the quieter moments of Noah and Rebecca, or puts them together in a scene, it’s absolute magic. Rarely do films focus on the hushed moments alone or together in the way Carousel does, nor do they get into how difficult it can be to lose love then try to find that love again. Yet Lambert is fantastic at showing us a side of loneliness and love that films seldom do, and that’s what makes Lambert and Carousel so sublime.
Carousel has its world premiere at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.
Release Date January 22, 2026
Director Rachel Lambert
Writers Rachel Lambert
Cast
Pros & Cons
- Chris Pine and Jenny Slate are wonderful together and doing some of their best work yet.
- Writer-director Rachel Lambert is great at showing the small moments movies rarely give us.
- This is a solid love story that shows how hard it can be to love after losing love.
- Some of the supporting characters could've had more to do.
- A few of the narrative threads feel like they're missing a necessary scene or two.
English (US) ·