Name: Longest Third Date
Director: Brent Hodge
Released: 2023-04-18T12:30:00

Longest Third Date is a documentary about two people who headed to Costa Rica for their third date but ended up staying for longer than expected due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The film is streaming on Netflix.

Story

Matt Robertson and Khani Le match with each other on Hinge in the early days of 2020 and get in a few dates to establish their compatibility before deciding to go on a trip to Costa Rica for their third date.

What they do not anticipate is that a 4-day trip will turn into an indeterminate number of days due to the onset of the coronavirus pandemic that forced the shutdown of entire countries and international and local travel of any kind.

Matt and Khani suddenly found themselves forced to spend days with someone they barely knew and make the most of adversity. They manage to make an experience out of it and tough it out for almost 3 months before eventually getting back home and starting the rest of their lives together.

Positives

The film does a great job of overlaying existing footage with updated narration as Matt and Khani are asked to go over the trip again, and so are their respective best friends. There is an added perspective that may not have come out ever if this remained a simple Buzzfeed article.

There is authenticity in the way Khani and Matt talk about their journey and it is genuinely wonderful to see how their story progresses and learn how they gradually fell in love with each in this complicated situation.

Negatives

The film wouldn’t have even existed if it wasn’t for the fact that Matt was a wannabe vlogger and there are certainly some questions raised about the credibility of their story. It’s an easy film to make that doesn’t really push any creative boundaries.

Verdict

Longest Third Date is a wonderfully real story about two people who fell in love under the most incredible circumstances and had the fortune of documenting the bulk of it, leading to them becoming the subjects of a social documentary that mildly looks at things like social media, and relationships and dating culture in the modern age.