--- title: "Next Life" year: 2026 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/next-life" fi1m_id: "next-life" imdb_id: "tt35305106" tmdb_id: 1387778 wikidata_id: "Q132672655" fi1m_score: 48 critics_reviews: 3 published: "2026-10-12T20:15:11.546259+00:00" updated: "2026-10-12T20:15:37.683456+00:00" region: "MX" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Next Life (2026) Directed by Drake Doremus · 1h 52m · Science Fiction, Romance, Music ## Identity Next Life - **Canonical:** https://film.one/film/next-life - **Type:** Film - **Fi1m ID:** next-life - **IMDb ID:** tt35305106 - **TMDB ID:** 1387778 - **Wikidata ID:** Q132672655 - **Same entity:** https://www.imdb.com/title/tt35305106/, https://www.themoviedb.org/movie/1387778, https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q132672655 **Fi1m score: 48** · Critics: 3 of 6 reviews so far *In a sentence:* Two possible lives, one London jazz club, and a film that has already picked before Emilia Clarke has > Drake Doremus gives Emilia Clarke two possible lives and two possible men, and has plainly chosen one before the hour is out. Clarke, Jack Farthing and a live band earn some goodwill; the rest is a nicely lit London nobody lives in. ## Synopsis Ivy (Emilia Clarke) lives in London, in and around its jazz clubs, where a musician called Femi (Femi Koleoso) plays and her friend Lara (Molly Gromadzki) keeps her company. Two men are in front of her. Diego (Édgar Ramírez) is the obvious choice, assured and easy to be with; Noah (Jack Farthing) is the one nobody would bet on, careful and a little grey. Rather than make Ivy choose, the film runs both futures side by side, cutting between the life with Diego and the life with Noah, each with its own flat, its own friends and its own version of her. What she wants is a life that feels like her own. What stands in the way is that she, and we, can see both at once. ## Review Drake Doremus writes and directs *Next Life*, a 112-minute romance with a science-fiction conceit so light you could miss it. Ivy (Emilia Clarke) is a woman in London with two men in front of her, Diego (Édgar Ramírez) and Noah (Jack Farthing), and instead of making her choose, the film shows us both lives, cutting between them as they run. It is a decent idea, and Doremus has built a career on films about two people in a room, so he ought to be the man to make it. He gets about half of it right. The half he gets wrong is the half the whole film is standing on. Clarke is the reason to keep watching. She plays Ivy without the big eyes and the pleading that have been asked of her elsewhere; this Ivy listens, mostly, and the camera stays on her face while other people talk. Farthing is the surprise. Noah is written as the man you would not bet on, a bit careful, a bit dull on paper, and Farthing plays him as somebody who has noticed this about himself and decided not to apologise for it. Their scenes together are small and funny and feel found rather than written, which is the Doremus method at its best. The music is the other thing that works. Dan Romer’s score is sparing and mostly lets the band play, and the band is where the film comes alive, with Femi Koleoso as a musician called Femi driving it from the back. There is a night in the club, early on, where Marianne Bakke holds a long take on Clarke watching the stage with the light coming off the brass, and we found ourselves leaning in the way she does. It is the one time the film makes London feel like a place anyone actually lives. Then there is Diego. Ramírez is a capable actor stranded in a part that is all surface: the assured one, the man with the better flat and the easier charm. He and Clarke do not strike anything off each other. Scenes meant to be heady come across as two people being polite. Because that strand never catches, the film’s central question, which life she should want, stops being a question. Doremus has told us the answer by about the forty-minute mark and then spends another hour pretending he has not. The craft does not help as much as it should. Bakke shoots in shallow focus and warm, low light, so flats, bars and streets blur into the same honeyed haze, and the two lives, which ought to look and feel distinct, become hard to tell apart without a glance at who is in the bed. Avner Shiloah cuts between the strands on a mood rather than a beat, which keeps things soft when the idea wanted edges. Nobody in either life appears to have a job, a landlord or a bus to catch. The whole thing feels chosen from a catalogue of nice London lives, and that is what most got between us and caring. A midwife (Laura Guest) and a Doctor Akram (Adil Akram) turn up in one of the strands, and we will say nothing about which or why. We will say that the second half asks the structure to carry a weight it has not been built for. The method here is two actors, a loose script and a camera close enough to catch them thinking, and it works when something real stands between the people. *Next Life* has the method without the pressure. Worth an evening if Clarke and Farthing talking in a kitchen and a live band in a small room sound like enough. For most people it will not be. Watch it at home, where the softness is less of a problem and you can go back to the music. *Fi1m score 48, published 12 October 2026.* ## What the critics say With only 3 reviews in so far, the verdict leans negative. Deadline is the lone enthusiast, finding a personal, engaging romantic drama that treats both of its possible paths as worth taking, and singling out Emilia Clarke and the London jazz setting. The Hollywood Reporter and The Wrap are unconvinced, the former calling the thought experiment too tidy and abstract to mean much, the latter finding the romance stacked toward one choice and unsatisfying. Praise for the cast is the one point of agreement: the leads’ charm is noted even by those who dislike the film, and The Wrap credits Jack Farthing with making the less obvious suitor unexpectedly disarming. ## Straight answers **Is Next Life worth watching?** *Next Life* is worth watching only if Emilia Clarke and Jack Farthing talking in a kitchen and a live jazz band in a small room sound like enough for an evening, and we scored it 48. The two-lives idea stops being a question once Édgar Ramírez's strand fails to catch, and the honeyed, shallow-focus London makes the two futures hard to tell apart. Watch it at home, where the softness matters less. **How long is Next Life, and what is it rated?** *Next Life* runs 1h 52m. It is a science fiction and romance film. **Where can I watch Next Life in Mexico?** *Next Life* is not on any streaming or rental service in Mexico at the moment. Availability is checked daily. **How does Next Life compare to Sliding Doors?** *Next Life* and [*Sliding Doors*](https://film.one/film/sliding-doors) both split a London woman's life in two, and both have the same weakness: one half gets the better man and the other gets a boyfriend the film cannot make interesting. *Sliding Doors* is the tighter and funnier of the two, with John Hannah carrying the good half. *Next Life* has the better music and the quieter performances, but less of a story to hold them. **What should I watch after Next Life?** After *Next Life*, try [*Sliding Doors*](https://film.one/film/sliding-doors) (1998, Fi1m 63): The two-lives trick done in London with a tube train and better jokes. Then [*The Worst Person in the World*](https://film.one/film/the-worst-person-in-the-world) (2021, Fi1m 84): Oslo, two men, a woman who does not know what she wants; it lets her be wrong; and [*Past Lives*](https://film.one/film/past-lives) (2023, Fi1m 85): The road not taken, handled quietly and without the scales tipped in advance. ### Reviews we read (3) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, Mariola Zoladz (30/100, inferred): The review finds the romantic thought experiment too tidy and emotionally abstract to make its questions about love and purpose meaningful. It praises the leads’ charm, but criticizes the film’s curated relationships and generic settings for making its characters feel unreal. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/next-life-review-emilia-clarke-drake-doremus-1236613079/) - **Deadline**, Pete Hammond (75/100, inferred): Hammond finds the film a personal, engaging romantic drama that thoughtfully treats both possible paths as viable. He particularly praises Emilia Clarke’s performance and the film’s vibrant London jazz setting and soundtrack. [Read](https://deadline.com/2026/06/next-life-review-emilia-clarke-drake-doremus-tribeca-1236942628/) - **The Wrap** (40/100, inferred): The review finds the romance too heavily stacked toward one choice and ultimately unsatisfying. It praises Jack Farthing for making the ostensibly less appealing suitor unexpectedly disarming, while criticizing the lack of chemistry with Édgar Ramírez. [Read](https://www.thewrap.com/creative-content/movies/next-life-review-tribeca-emilia-clarke/) ## Details - **Director:** Drake Doremus - **Director:** Drake Doremus - **Writer:** Drake Doremus - **Cinematography:** Marianne Bakke - **Editor:** Avner Shiloah - **Music:** Dan Romer - **Producer:** Elika Portnoy, Gleb Fetisoff, Ben Pugh - **Cast:** Emilia Clarke as Ivy; Édgar Ramírez as Diego; Jack Farthing as Noah; Molly Gromadzki as Lara; Laurent C. Lucas as Herve; Manuela Mora as Sophia; Diana Noris Smith as Tina; Triana Terry as Katie - **Runtime:** 1h 52m - **First release (the US):** 5 June 2026 - **Genres:** Science Fiction, Romance, Music ## Where to watch in Mexico Not streaming, renting or buying in Mexico at the last check. ## If you liked this - *Like Crazy* (2011): Doremus’s own method with the obstacles still in place; see what pressure does for it. - *Sliding Doors* (1998), Fi1m 63: The two-lives trick done in London with a tube train and better jokes. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/sliding-doors.md) - *The Worst Person in the World* (2021), Fi1m 84: Oslo, two men, a woman who does not know what she wants; it lets her be wrong. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-worst-person-in-the-world.md) - *Mo' Better Blues* (1990): A trumpeter, two women and a club; the music does most of the arguing. - *Past Lives* (2023), Fi1m 85: The road not taken, handled quietly and without the scales tipped in advance. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/past-lives.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. Canonical: https://film.one/film/next-life