Interview at Riverside Studios review: glib, overcooked, and with zero chemistry

Tables turn, morally and sexually, in this glib two-hander where fading political journalist Pierre reluctantly interviews young, beautiful influencer-turned-actress Katya. A lack of chemistry between Robert Sean Leonard (from House, among other things) and Paten Hughes is only part of the problem.

Pierre’s casual disdain for the assignment is overstated. Her taunting vampiness is overcooked. There’s a crisis unfolding in Washington from which he’s been diverted: he hasn’t seen her TV series or her blockbuster franchise films, only a movie called Bromeo and Juliet in which she performed the balcony scene topless. The deeply improbable shifts in mood and attitude between them feel mechanical, constructed to explore the stories people tell about themselves, the faces they put on.