Online dating can be a real killer.

In the new romantic thriller ‘The Lonely Crowd’ by debut writer/director David St. Clair; it really can be.

The film centers on Peter (Adam Wesley), a jaded ex-athlete looking for the right girl in the lonely concrete jungle of Los Angeles. Seeing only his close friends finding happiness, he almost gives up on love when he meets the spiky Ashley (Taylor Anne Danehower) online and they agree to meet on a tense, fateful first date that ends up being anything other than conventional. Turns out the sultry Ashley is mixed up with some super shady people and soon Peter is caught up in all of it including her unhinged ex-cop boyfriend, Jake (a miscast Giancarlo Carmona).

Peter and Ashely must put aside their differences as they now become fugitives on the run in a desperate race to prove their innocence and uncover Jake’s illegal web of police corruption and murder.

St. Clair attempts ambition and blends romance, thriller and comedy (along with the pitfalls of online dating apps) into one but can’t find connection (pun intended) with any of them. The drab, digital visuals of the film don’t help and yes, the story is set in LA but all the male characters look like models and have perfect eybrows and lack the grit of supposed experienced cops or ex-cons: the film just doesn’t seem as lived in or as real as the script demands it to be. The opening segment however, nicely sets up the film with a daring prison escape but as soon as we switch the narrative to Peter the story almost seems like it’s from a different film entirely.

The lack of chemistry between the two leads doesn’t help (although Danehower comes across much better than the banal Wesley) and the dialogue tries to be clever and witty but ends up stuck with cheesy one-liners such as “heads up, jerk off” that seem more suited to a movie starring Dwayne Johnson. Ironically, a large rock becomes the main protagonist of the film’s climax which sums up the film in general.

At 105 minutes the film also suffers from glacial pacing depsite the promise of high stakes.

Swipe left on this one folks.

Desario Films, USA, 105 Mins, 2026.

The Lonely Crowd is available to rent/buy on Amazon Prime.