Shortcomings

Rating: 5.0 Overall, a pretty bland movie that tries way too hard to be meta and 'anti-woke' that it does not do a good job at being realistic as the direction of actors is pretty bad and the writing is bland/predictable, with the ending feeling like a Dhar Mann video.

Pretty Bad Direction (Moves the story forward in a decent way, but it just feels like there is a lot of empty space in the interpersonal scenes cause it doesn't feel like the characters have chemistry with each other (They just feel like stock videos); uses the Rom-Com template as a foil as many aspects of the movie steal from the genre's tropes (but makes fun of it in a meta manner)), Pretty Bad to Decent Acting (Pretty Bad to Decent from Justin H. Min (Has some moments where he is pretty good but somewhere he clearly is reaching a dramatic limit (Does not hold his own as the leading character as he does not have good chemistry with the rest of the cast (which could be attributed to how he was written))), Decent to Pretty Good from Sherry Cola (The best performance of the movie as plays to her characters strengths well (the comic-relief best friend trope) and gives some range within the confines of what her character is supposed to do (though there is some visible limitation)), Pretty Bad from Ally Maki (The performance just feels a bit one-dimension and the scenes with Min do not have any chemistry (which makes their interpersonal scenes very bland)), Pretty Bad to Decent from Tavi Gevinson (This is more of how the character is written but she just does not feel that believable in this role (mainly from poor direction)), Pretty Bad from Debby Ryan (Does not have any chemistry with Min as her performance just feels very bland and stock), Decent to Pretty Good from Sonoya Mizuno (The most experienced member of the cast as she does show some range of emotion (the only issue being that she does not have that many times to show it and does not work well off of the other characters)), Decent from Jacob Batalon (The comedic relief character that does a decent job at eliciting laughs from the audience, but does not feel very fluid as some parts of the performance felt off), Pretty Bad from the rest of the cast (Just a lot of minor side characters that do not provide anything)), Pretty Bad Story (The main purpose of the story is to mock the Rom-Com genre, but by doing this it does not develop good story elements as it is more focused on the dialogue and jokes rather than developing an interesting story (everything just feels very stock and safe)), Bad Screenplay (The dialogue feels incredibly simplistic; there were some good jokes but it mostly just felt like the movie was trying to be too Meta to the point that some of the conversations are just hard to listen to for how much back-pedaling there is; the symbolism and message is very shallow as the movie is overt in what it is trying to say but does not do a good job at making the meaning believable), Decent Score (Pretty generic for a rom-com), Decent Cinematography, Decent Sound (The scene where they used the concession microphone in the conversation was a very nice touch, but there were some moments where the mixing felt off), Pretty Bad to Decent Editing (Felt incredibly simplistic and choppy (just safe overall so nothing incredibly wrong)), Plot Structure follows a very similar template to that of a Rom-Com (even though the elements are meant to mimic the opposite), Pacing was a bit quicker than I would have liked (maybe adding 10 minutes to help slow the movie down would have been nice), Climax was incredibly cliche and predictable as the movie builds up to being an 'anti-climax'; the ending sequence of the movie is just so safe and bland that it feels like a Dhar Mann ending (especially with the narration and montage sequence), Tone was incredibly bland as the whole movie felt like it was a stock/fake movie that they would use in a real film (which is ironic given there is one of those in this movie)

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!

In a funny way, this movie is exactly the type of movie that is talk about in Shortcoming... The main character is someone who does not accept himself with his bias...but also project on others this bias...he is unhappy and make everyone around him unhappy ...your typical guest to find happiness by discovering & accepting who were are...the thing that make this movie different is that the main characters are Asian...but also their acting which make it believable, some funny moments, some serious, some unreal, just like life itself. An other spectator used the term man\child which would also fit.

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.