"Maintenance Required" Finds Romance in the Auto Shop

In Maintenance Required, Madelaine Petsch plays a car mechanic named Charlie whose life is turned upside down after a chain repair shop moves in across the street and threatens to shut down her small business. To make matters even more complicated, the manager of the chain shop, Beau (Jacob Scipio), is a hot guy who she has a love/hate relationship with. He also happens to be “Bullnose”, the Reddit user she’s been messaging anonymously and is clearly in love with.

Over the course of the film, Beau thrives at his job and works to make his vintage electric vehicle dream a reality while Charlie flounders, unsure of what she’ll do with her life if the shop shuts down. Scipio and Petsch do have incredible chemistry together. There’s a scene early on where they play pool and you can feel the tension. It’s great casting for an enemies-to-lovers plot, which nearly saves the fact that Beau was unapologetically ruining Charlie’s business.

For this movie to work, I needed Beau to make a proactive decision to support Charlie even if it hurt him. If one person has power over the other’s career, the powerful person needs to make concessions. Maintenance Required never enabled Beau to do this, instead manufacturing plot points that allowed him to make seemingly nice decisions that were purely in his own self-interest. If you don’t think about it too hard it’s a fun rom-com, but I wish it had been easier to root for Beau. 

I am shocked and upset to report that the movie about a female car mechanic who meets the love of her life online featuring Katy O’Brien does not, in fact, have a lesbian storyline. O’Brien does play a butch mechanic, but she is sadly straight. I found this kind of jarring, but regardless I did enjoy the support that her character, Kat, and Izzy (Madison Bailey) gave to Charlie throughout the film. They want her to find love and be happy and they’re willing to scheme to make that happen. When something goes wrong they’re willing to drop everything and show up to support their friend. The female friendship is the strongest part of this film. 

Beau’s best friend, Jordan (Matteo Lane), is an openly gay man. Before Beau realizes that Charlie is the anonymous Reddit user, Jordan jokes that he’s hooked up with plenty of people whose names he doesn’t know. Other than that, Jordan pops up only when he’s needed to further the primary romantic storyline. 

Maintenance Required avoids falling too deeply into this trap with the other side characters. While they all, to some extent, exist for the good of their main character friend, Izzy and Kat are at least more developed. Izzy has her own nail salon side hustle and both women have their own romantic life, which fleshes them out a bit more as characters. Still, despite the diversity of the cast overall, the main focal point of the movie is certainly the white, straight Petsch.

At the end of the day, this movie is exactly what you’d expect from a straight-to-streaming romance starring the cast of Riverdale and Outer Banks. It’s a little cheesy and the plot isn’t groundbreaking, but it’s a fun way to spend a rainy afternoon inside. At the end of the 100 minute runtime, you’ll be left with a smile on your face and a new appreciation for cars.