# Good intentions can't save a clichéd film

> Kim Bartley's first narrative feature means well, but Lemonade runs on autopilot from the first frame.
- Title: Good intentions can't save a clichéd film | Shortify
- Summary: Kim Bartley's first narrative feature means well, but Lemonade runs on autopilot from the first frame. Caring about the right things is not the same as…
- Keywords: film review, irish cinema, tiff, drama, barry keoghan, Good, intentions, can't, save, clichéd, film, The Hollywood Reporter
- Source: The Hollywood Reporter — https://hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-reviews/lemonade-review-barry-keoghan-1236697925
- Author: Richard Lawson
- Published: 2026-09-14T02:58:42+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: film review, irish cinema, tiff, drama, barry keoghan
## A debut with good intentions
Documentary maker Kim Bartley steps into fiction with Lemonade, a film whose heart and politics sit exactly where you would want them.
## The question the film raises
If a movie cares about the right things, do you forgive the clichés and the generic plotting? That is the bargain Lemonade asks audiences to accept.

> How much do good intentions count?
## A teen caught in the system
The story follows an Irish teenager from a rough background trying to handle a pile of adult problems he never asked for.
## Everything lands at once
His troubles all arrive together, timed less by life than by the needs of the screenplay. The convenience shows.

> as they all come rushing at him (quite conveniently, for the movie's purposes) at the same time
## Wholly predictable
You can see each beat coming. The indie means well, but nothing in it surprises.
## Sincerity is not craft
The cookie-cutter form grates as a matter of art. Care about the subject does not excuse a shape borrowed wholesale from better films.

> its cookie-cutter form aggravates as a matter of art
## Key takeaway

Caring about the right things is not the same as making something worth watching.