Shortcomings

Stephanie Hsu had a good cameo, you forget about it as the movie progresses but it comes up again and plays an small but enlightening and important role for what the movie's convey. There are a lot of Asian-American movie's coming out recently, I think EEAAO took the spotlight but I watched joy ride a few weeks ago which was great, and now Shortcomings, even though it seems like it'll fly under the radar.

Some elements of the movie reminded me of Wes Anderson movies, with frequent pauses to divide the movie into chapters as if it were a novel. It didn't forgo realism in favor of his orange sunset dollhouse aesthetic feel however. Something that I realized was that the movie was awfully quiet, like minimal surrounding sounds and you barely notice the scene's background characters too. I love how Spider-Man exists here and Jacob Batalon recognizes it.

Subtitle's would be nice but the movie is in English in almost it's entirety. It's not the funniest but the funny scenes did feel real. It feels like real people and above all the movies story, events and characters were believable so the moments that need to invoke emotions do that well... the cringe moments, the romantic moments, the humiliating moments, self realizing moments all felt like you were there in the moment for the characters.

I think it's less of a romcom and more of a drama comedy, even though Ben's relationships play a huge role I think it was a character study in the end for the character himself, self reflection and all that; so his love interest are just used as tools to that end. I liked that they each got meaningful endings too. He reminds me of Ramy from the tv show of the same name, in the sense of the second hand embarrassment, his world views and how much his decisions or what he says annoyed me because I wanted him to choose better. A man child basically.

It's not as excitingly paced, so not one of those cinema experiences were you get to have a blast, probably a movie better watched alone. Reminds me a little of Destination Wedding too in it's anti-romcom-ness, except this has a few more cute scenes. It did make me feel mushy inside at points but it's still not a romance as I said. I think it gets better as it goes, I wasn't sure at the start but I loved it by the time the movie was done.

Shortcomings is a very well made and acted slice of life type of movie. It's a comedy with full of heart. I love this flick. The directorial debut of Randall Park (who does a cameo) is an assured work. Must watch whether you're of Asian descent or not because there are many things relatable here, especially for those who've lived the single life and all its entanglements, or if they're still in the midst of their younger version.

It depicts many relatable themes like struggles, self doubt, finding love, heartache, friendship, family - - all with the brevity and lightness that's just right that it doesn't go too deep and depressing and it isn't too over the top funny.

The lead Ben (Justin Min) is someone you'd either relate to or know someone like that. Seems shallow, a bit of a prick, and still wandering about life. His good friend Alice is a lesbian (Sherry Cola) who's also living her best life (sort of); she even asks him to pretend to be her bf to placate her conservative Korean parents. (source of good comedy; it was also in one of the trailers so this isn't a spoiler). Sherry steals the show and provides great friendship chemistry with Justin. It's also a pretty funny movie at the right doses. Love to see Sonoya Mizuno (La La Land and Craxy

Wonderful job by Randall Park and the cast and crew. I highly recommend this.

Plus it's funny!

Saw this at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival

"Shortcomings" is a story about a trio of young Bay Area urbanites--Ben Tanaka, Miko Hayashi, and Alice Kim--as they navigate a range of interpersonal relationships, traversing the country in search of the ideal connection. This is Randall Park's first debut feature and I gotta say it's a pretty good first time directing project. Shortcomings explores about friendship, love, narcissism, and growth revolving around Asians or Asian American communities. I wasn't fully wowed by anything from the movie but I was still able to connect with the movie.

Park is able to capture the interesting chemistry between the cast members and the modern setting with some fun humor and personalities explored. The performances from each cast members was really good and Justin H. Min does a pretty good job portraying a man child of a person. The camerawork wasn't too special but it was good for the overall setting. The production is good and some of the dialogue was well-written and funny.

However, the story does become pretty predictable as it continues. A generic rom-com story where predictable movements were going to happen. But without Park's charms and chemistry, it would have been like a bad hallmark movie. Despite having some good dialogue, there were some dialogue moments that felt really awkward or forced and I am not sure if that was intentional or not. If it was intentional then I can understand but if not then those dialogue moments were pretty rough. Some of the supporting characters were a little annoying. Even with my gripes, I was still able to be entertained throughout this film.

By all means, it's a decent romantic comedy with good pacing and interesting concepts explored. I'd recommend for those who wanna have a drink or two and watch it for fun.

Rating: B-

I was interested enough to finish the movie and that says something but I wouldn't watch it again. The movie is about a few friends living in Berkley who are essentially all struggling. Ben Tenaka, his gay female friend Alice, and his girlfriend, Miko. Ben is a first class man boy jerk. Exhibit A in what is wrong with men today and why women are giving up on love and marriage. Ben is controlling, unfaithful, negative, a racist and a hypocrite. And shockingly his career and money prospects are poor, only being the manager of a small cinema.

We watch him as he drives off everyone in life with his toxic masculinity and I guess... are supposed to root for him in the end, that he will change. But the movie gives us no hint that is going to happen? For me the best part was his girlfriend telling him off... after leaving him. Though, he is unsupportive, sarcastic, soul crushing and unpleasant, when she tries to get away and claims to be doing an internship in New York, to let him down gently, after he messes around, confronts her for being unfaithful. Stunning but typical today. But confused as to why anyone would want to see a story about this.

"Shotcomings"... Man, I've had bigger laughs watching paint dry. I mean, the previews had me thinking this was going to be the comedy of the year. Remember those? Hilarious. But the movie? A couple of chuckles here and there, but mostly crickets. And what was up with that plot? More like "What plot?" If movies had arcs, this one was stuck in the flatlands. Honestly, by the end, I was just sitting there thinking, "Did we really need this movie in our lives?" I guess I set my hopes too high. Thought I was in for a comedy feast but left feeling like I just had a light snack. Bit of a letdown, tbh.