Alone Together

It’s interesting when a star makes the leap to producer/writer/director. Katie Holmes doubled down on the challenge by making her three-way a pandemic rom-com. She deserves credit for taking a jab at territory most filmmakers remain hesitant to touch, but “Alone Together” (2022) feels a little forced. The setup makes perfect rom-com sense: while escaping New York at the outset of the pandemic, an Upper West Side writer (of course) and a recently jilted blue-collar dude end up at a double-booked Airbnb in the middle of nowhere. Alas, not enough romantic tension, plus pandemic deaths put a damper on hijinks.

28 Days Later

The more things change during a pandemic, the more they stay the same. Just ask Rip Van Twentysomething, who awakes from a vehicle-accident coma to find England has become a cross between “The Hunger Games,” “The Walking Dead” and “The Twilight Zone.” In the well-crafted “28 Days Later” (2003), the isles have been overtaken by an infectious disease released from a research lab. There’s been a sort-of evacuation due to sort-of zombies, but there’s some uninfected castaways like Cillian Murphy, who picked the wrong day to leave an empty hospital. Survivalist hijinks ensue, with a healthy serving of moral dilemmas.