Shortcomings

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!

Superb characterization makes this a standout. The friendship between Ben and Alice feels incredibly genuine, forming the compelling heart of the story. The screenplay is a major strength, crafting dialogue that consistently rings true and developing situations with a realistic sense of events. Actions and reactions feel authentic, never forced or contrived, truly immersing you in their world. While strong, a bit more refinement in pacing or deeper exploration of certain subplots could enhance its overall impact and emotional resonance. Still, it's a noteworthy watch for its strong performances and remarkably grounded storytelling.

Ok. I overrated it. It's not that something worth a 10/10. But I really enjoyed watching it. It reminds me when I'm young. When I don't know how to appreciate what I have. Keep chasing the feelings like trophy collection. Obsessed with one relationship. Biased. Sometimes frustrated. All of these are actually called growing up. It's a period of time, while you learn how to fight, how to let go and move on. Learn how to live with it en enjoy the moment. Learn how to appreciate and respect. Park, I think I got what you trying to say.

There are several times in the movie people used the term of "what age is he living in". I think that was a key of explaining some times we are deeply impacted by the ideals that we were educated or lectured during our childhood. One day when you wake up and start to think and selectively review these things we were taught, that's called maturity.

That's what this movie made me think of. Kinda deep. Again, I really enjoyed it.

Shortcomings is a film I had been wanting to see for a while, but because of the underwhelmingly lukewarm response it received from other reviewers I was not in a hurry to spend my money just to be disappointed. But I am glad I finally watched it!

I'm definitely part of the target demographic which isn't strictly Asian-American, it's more of anti-romantic comedy for older urban Millennials who are still struggling with being adultier adults at 35 or 40. There was also a lot of queer representation. I started laughing out loud at the obvious dig at Crazy Rich Asians in the first five minutes. Yet there's also a poignant shift in perspective closer to the end of the story.

Ben is every "too cool to like anything" mildly toxic masculinity trope from my generation. Apart from the chip on his shoulder about being perceived as less macho as an Asian man, he's stereotypically every suburban white guy from younger Gen X or older Millennial high school and college who mocked people for liking certain bands, was always too full of himself to watch certain movies. I've had relationships with men like Ben when I was younger. I think calling him a narcissist is going a bit too far, but he's definitely immature and can be deeply unpleasant because his own insecurity in his masculinity makes him passive-aggressive and hostile like a permanently 17 year old black rain cloud on other people's joy.

His best friend, Alice, is an equally sharp-tongued and emotionally unavailable lesbian force to be reckoned with and her own growth over the arc of the story is implied to inspire Ben to finally grow up, too.

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.