Carlson Young

In The Last Sunrise (2026), Carlson Young photographs a dancer and a fisherman as though they were another reason to visit Mallorca. Maia Reficco and Fernando Lindez make a handsome addition to the scenery, but we are given little reason to believe in the attraction between them. The film is tidy, attractive and poor at the one thing its romance needs to do. We felt almost nothing for the couple, because the care taken over their appearance never makes their feelings convincing.

That is a dispiriting destination for a director who began with surreal horror and fantasy. Young expanded her short The Blazing World (2018) into the feature of the same name in 2021, writing, directing and playing Margaret Winter. Its dreamscapes deal with trauma, and its art-directed images and symbolic colour reflect an interest in Dario Argento. The move to Upgraded (2024), a studio romantic comedy starring Camila Mendes, then to the thriller Trust (2025), shows how quickly she has moved between kinds of film. The concern is that telling a story can come second to finding its look.

Young comes to directing with acting experience and an approach intended to support performers. That makes the emotional flatness of The Last Sunrise more disappointing. In Anna Klassen's adaptation of Anna Todd's novel, which Todd also produces, she has a straightforward romantic premise to work with. Reficco's visiting dancer meets Lindez's local fisherman, and the summer setting ought to give their attraction room to grow. Instead, the handsome presentation keeps getting our attention when the couple should.

Young's willingness to move between genres is encouraging, and even this unsuccessful romance is carefully presented. We would still pass on The Last Sunrise: attractive locations are a thin reason to spend an evening with lovers who scarcely interest us. Her next conventional story needs to give its performers more to do than fit the picture. If she makes another romance, we would like to forget where it was filmed.