Vague Visages’ Voicemails for Isabelle review contains minor spoilers. Leah McKendrick’s 2026 Netflix movie features Zoey Deutch, Nick Robinson and Harry Shum Jr. Check out the VV home page for more film criticism, movie reviews and film essays.

Much like the 2026 film People We Meet on Vacation, Voicemails for Isabelle reinvents romantic comedy tropes for a modern audience. Both Netflix movies follow familiar paths, with the main difference being that the latter rom-com tugs at the audience’s heartstrings just a little bit harder. Voicemails for Isabelle isn’t necessarily a dark romantic comedy, though filmmaker Leah McKendrick spends an appropriate amount of time balancing slapstick comedy with the tragic elements of her screenplay.

Set in McKendrick’s native San Francisco, Voicemails for Isabelle stars Netflix veteran Zoey Deutch (Set It Up, 2018) as Jill, a chef-in-training and kumquat enthusiast who struggles emotionally after her younger sister (Ciara Bravo as Isabelle) passes away from cystic fibrosis. While working for a former Top Chef (2006-) contestant (Nick Offerman as the pretentious Chef Bastien), the protagonist leaves voicemails for her late sister as a coping mechanism and develops a romantic relationship with a fellow Texas native named Wes (Nick Robinson). Unfortunately for Jill, she doesn’t know that her new boyfriend received Isabelle’s former phone number months prior and has been listening to her one-sided conversations (rants) about love, loss and new beginnings. Voicemails for Isabelle won’t go down as one of the best films about San Francisco, though McKendrick shows promise with her follow-up to the delightfully raunchy 2022 comedy Scrambled.

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McKendrick’s standard but smooth direction in Voicemails for Isabelle keeps the spotlight on the outstanding lead performances. But as with the aforementioned Scrambled and so many other traditional rom-coms, she disrupts the tone with forced movie references, including nods to Sleepless in Seattle (1993), Notting Hill (1999), Bridget Jones’s Diary (2001), A Walk to Remember (2002), Love Actually (2003) and A Fault in Our Stars (2014). But there’s something different about McKendrick’s approach, both as a screenwriter and in a supporting role as Wes’ hilarious friend, Breeda. It’s almost like she intended to troll her global Netflix audience by providing exactly what most rom-com fans expect: call-backs to familiar films from the past. Given McKendrick’s overtly sexual lead performance in Scrambled and snarky screenplay, she most likely had to compromise with Netflix executives and thus decided to hammer viewers over the head with steady rom-com references (at least during the first hour).

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Deutch, the daughter of actress Leah Thompson and director Howard Deutch, continues to develop her skill set as a dramatic and comedic performer. Rather than following a genre playbook that calls for awkward tumbles and contrived self-loathing, she sits in the moment and takes her time. And while general audiences may not appreciate the nuances of the craft, Deutch’s lead performance in Voicemails for Isabelle suggests that she’s learned a lot from past roles in traditional dramas like Before I Fall (2017), The Oufit (2022) and Clint Eastwood’s Juror #2 (2024). She’s also a master facial contortionist but holds back in McKendrick’s Netflix film to complement her co-lead’s equally suave performance. It’s quite magical when Jill and Wes slowly accept their feelings for each other, and then make subtle gestures to communicate what the audience already knows. On the technical side, McKendrick frequently returns to a green and brown color palette, one that boosts the vibrant cityscapes of San Francisco, while cinematographer Julia Swain delivers a couple slick 360-degree shots that bookend the film, with the latter punctuating Jill’s character arc.

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Voicemails for Isabelle might annoy some viewers with its handling of rom-com tropes, but McKendrick clearly understood objective #1: to entertain a global Netflix audience of different ages. The pop culture references will resonate with the 40 and older crowd, while the provocative humor and realistic character sketches will presumably please Gen Z and millennial streamers. Voicemails for Isabelle is all about big moments and memorable experiences that bring life into focus, but it’s also about small gestures that make the larger ones more meaningful.

Voicemails for Isabelle premieres June 19, 2026 on Netflix.

Q.V. Hough (@QVHough) is Vague Visages’ founding editor. Thank you for reading film criticism, movie reviews and film essays at Vague Visages.

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