Unpacking (2026) Review – This Is Entertaining

Directors: Alexandra Clayton, Michal Sinnott
Cast: Sam Bianchini, Dania Arancha, Alexandra Clayton, Michal Sinnott, Katie Braden, Jessica Rotondi, Stephanie Ann Whited, Gandhi Fernando, Natalie Mitchell
Cert: 16+
Running time: 81 mins

Billed as being the work of the Wherever You Go Collective, this enjoyable American indie is co-directed by Alexandra Clayton and Michal Sinnott, who also co-wrote the script with Joseph Schollaert. Consistently engaging and superbly acted, it’s effectively a refreshing, female-focused hangout movie, though it is fair to say that it’s a little light on plot.

Shot entirely on location in Bali (primarily Bailan Beach and Ubud, if the locations put you in the holiday mood), the film centres on a group of five American women who attend a transformative self-help retreat, run by influencer-guru Keri Hart (Sam Bianchini) and her Indonesian assistant Ni Ketut (Dania Arancha).

The attendees include: pregnant Charlotte (Sinnott) and her put-upon sister Ruby (Clayton); chatty, crystal-obsessed Jackie (Jessica Rotondi), empty nester Alice (Katie Braden), who’s been lonely since her daughter left home; and uptight Eithne, pronounced “Eena” (Stephanie Ann Whited), whose lesbian partner Vivika (Natalie Mitchell) has tricked her into coming to the retreat on her own, to work on her apparent superiority complex.

Plot-wise, there isn’t much more to it than that. Grievances are aired, breakthroughs are achieved, connections are formed, bonds are made, that sort of thing. Indeed, the film seems to actively resist anything approaching a conventional dramatic incident – for example, this must be the rare example of a film with a heavily pregnant woman that doesn’t feature either a birth scene or a pregnancy-related complication of any kind.

In fairness, the key pleasures of a good hangout movie lie primarily in the character interactions, and in that respect, there’s a lot to enjoy here. In particular, the film does a good job of subverting some of the usual cliches, most notably when it comes to the character of Jackie, who’s initially presented as being a little obnoxious and annoying, but who ends up having a key exchange with one of the other characters that is perceptive and thoughtful and surprisingly moving.

On that note, the script is very strong on the interactions between the various characters, and the various emotional scenes (confessions, revelations, reparations and so on) largely hit home. More importantly, the conversations feel natural and organic, and it feels like there was probably a fair bit of improvisation on set in order to achieve that.

In addition, Clayton and Sinnott make a couple of inventive staging choices that work well. The stand-out is a series of cuts between close-ups of Charlotte and Alice as they have a conversation about childbirth – they are both getting massages at the time, but Charlotte is framed upside down, looking up at the sky, while Alice is framed with her head in the hole of the massage table, looking at the ground.

The performances are extremely good, across the board. Whited’s character gets the most focus in the script, and she’s superb, giving a nervy, edgy, uncomfortable performance that gradually softens, while Rotondi is excellent as Jackie, whose character, as previously mentioned, reveals surprising depths.

Ultimately, each of the characters gets their moment to shine, if not always in the same way. For example, Dania Arancha doesn’t get much in the way of dialogue or character development (one of the script’s glaring flaws is the lack of background in the relationship between Ni Ketut and Keri), but she does have a really charming little solo dance sequence that is one of the film’s quiet highlights.

On a more technical level, the film’s use of handheld photography gives it a nice sense of immediacy and intimacy, and the locations are refreshingly different. There’s also a fun score by Mitchell Manburg, which gives the film distinct White Lotus vibes, either by design (in which case, presumably added later, given the film was made in 2022) or coincidence.

In short, this is an entertaining, well acted and refreshingly female focused hangout movie with strong characters and an engaging script. It also marks out Clayton and Sinnott as writer-director-star talents to watch.

Check out more reviews at Action Reloaded