Leah McKendrick brings grief and sexual frankness into romantic comedy without fuss. We value her attention to women's private lives, but Voicemails for Isabelle is too willing to excuse its troubling romantic premise.
Fi1m perspective
A woman's unguarded messages reach a stranger, and Leah McKendrick asks us to see the possibility of romance. In Voicemails for Isabelle (2026), he gains access to thoughts that were never meant for him. It is a troubling way to bring two people together, even with charming actors. McKendrick has written and directed an appealing, uneven film which gives grief and sexual frankness a place in romantic comedy. It is worth considering chiefly for its attention to the relationship between sisters.
Her route into feature directing went through M.F.A. (2017), a vigilante thriller she wrote, produced and acted in. With Scrambled (2023), her directing debut, she drew on her own experience of egg freezing and again wrote and starred. Her long voicemails to her sister helped inspire Voicemails for Isabelle, her second feature as writer-director. She has not confined those personal experiences to solemn dramas, which is a useful instinct in a director willing to take women's worries seriously.
In Voicemails for Isabelle, Zoey Deutch and Nick Robinson supply much of the charm that keeps the film going. We were moved by the attention to sisterhood, because McKendrick lets sadness remain part of the comedy rather than hurrying it out of the way. Editors Lee Haxall and Ryan C. Fill have a harder job moving from tearjerker to romance, and the transition remains awkward. The screenplay's observations about living with grief hold our interest even when the change of tone is uncomfortable.
The romantic problem needs more than a smoother edit. A stranger's access to private messages raises questions about trust that McKendrick's screenplay does not examine closely enough. Spending longer with Jill cannot make Wes's access to her thoughts easier to accept, and the actors' likeability only carries the film so far. We would welcome a romantic lead she was prepared to question a little harder.
Biography
Leah McKendrick is an American film director, screenwriter and actress. She wrote and directed the 2026 Netflix film Voicemails for Isabelle, in which she also appears as Breeda. She previously wrote, directed and starred in the 2023 feature Scrambled, and wrote and produced the 2017 thriller M.F.A..
Born and raised in San Francisco, McKendrick graduated from Sacred Heart Cathedral Preparatory and earned a BFA in theatre performance from Chapman University. She began writing and producing short films and web series while studying there, including the musical series Destroy the Alpha Gammas (2014). Her acting credits include roles in Bad Moms (2016), Misconduct (2016) and A Nice Girl Like You (2020).
