REVIEW: ‘Carolina Caroline’ Aches With Desire

Two of the biggest sleeper gems of the early 2020s are Dinner in America and Snack Shack, both sharing director Adam Carter Rehmeier. Seemingly given the supernatural ability to reach out of the screen and touch the audience’s hearts in a genuine way, Rehmeier does not disappoint with his latest, Carolina Caroline. Featuring white-hot chemistry between Kyle Gallner and Samara Weaving, a versatile, distinct atmosphere, and an enrapturing emotional intelligence, Carolina Caroline is bound to be seen as another massive hidden gem of the 2020s.

Caroline Daniels (Samara Weaving) feels stuck in her small Texas town. Raised by her father since her mother abandoned her after she was born, Caroline’s life is shaken up when she meets Oliver (Kyle Gallner), a small-time scam artist just passing through town. The two quickly become smitten with one another, so much so that they leave town together, embarking on a road trip to find Caroline’s mother. As they graduate from quick cons to robbing banks, the couple’s love grows deeper, even as their crime spree grows more and more unsustainable.

It’s safe to say Kyle Gallner and Samara Weaving are immensely underrated genre performers. Putting them together, in theory, feels like a cheat code for a compelling movie in and of itself. In practice, it’s supersonic. A quick glance at Caroline Daniels and you could surmise she’s a sweet, if shy, small-town girl. Yet underneath that is a sense of being trapped in a routine and a longing to break out by whatever means necessary. Weaving understands that the sweetness isn’t a facade, nor is her burgeoning wanderlust a temporary phase; they’re both essential to who Caroline is.

Kyle Gallner and Samara Weaving are absolutely mesmerizing in Carolina Caroline.

Kyle Gallner’s Oliver is a scam artist who frequently uses his charm to get ahead, which Gallner can do with ease, yet there’s also a genuine romantic side to him that’s just as crucial. Caroline and Oliver’s shared dualities make them the perfect jigsaw pieces for one another. Gallner and Weaving’s chemistry burns white hot, making you swoon in their quiet sensual moments and feel their almost erotic rush of committing crimes together. As the movie’s anchor, Carolina Caroline requires you to buy into the central dynamic. You’ll buy in. Hard.

If Gallner and Weaving don’t entirely sell the movie, then Adam Carter Rehmeier’s style picks up the slack. What impresses most about the feel of Carolina Caroline is how versatile it is. One moment there’ll be an energetic montage of Caroline learning how to con or an adrenaline-fueled bank heist, only for the next to be a quiet drive through an endless sea of woods where peace takes over entirely.

Rehmeier and cinematographer Jean-Philippe Bernier turn the American South into a sort of magical landscape, where all the characters’ emotions are reflected by their environment; the tranquil isolation of their bond is translated into languid shots of the open road and the frenetic handheld, close-quarters shots during a heist gone sideways, conveying their world falling apart.

The blurring of genres comes together to create another complexly delish viewing experience.

Aching is a terrific word for how Carolina Caroline feels. Here’s a movie where, through its performances, Rehmeier’s direction, and William Thomas Dean IV’s script, everyone is given empathy. The rough-and-tumble Oliver, the victims of their robberies and scams, Caroline’s father (The White Lotus’ Jon Gries), who let life pass him by, and even her absentee mother (Kyra Sedgwick) are given the grace to be viewed as human beings.

That extends to Caroline herself. It’d be easy to argue that her wanting to pack up her quiet, stable life for an existence riddled with crime is a selfish one, and maybe it is. Yet Carolina Caroline portrays the compulsion, the draw towards this life, as a sort of affliction, a drive that can’t be stopped. Carolina Caroline sees that we are who we are and, no matter how fleeting it may be, we’re all going to be drawn towards our individual paths, no matter how rough they may be.

As much as film can be a transportive experience that provides escapism, one of its greatest functions is capturing a hint, even a glimmer, of truth. Adam Carter Rehmeier has excelled at capturing the complexity of the human experience in previous films. Rehmeier’s Carolina Caroline is another soaring achievement in that department. Perceptive and deeply romantic, Carolina Caroline not only gives its leads the stage they’ve deserved so long, but it also reminds audiences what it feels like to desire.

Carolina Caroline releases in theaters on June 5, 2026.