‘Shortcomings’ Movie Review: Randall Park’s Feature Debut Is A Witty Anti-Romantic Comedy
Photo from Sony Pictures Classics
From Jeremy Kibler
Making one of your three co-leads flawed and pretty unlikable isn’t so much a shortcoming as it is a refreshing reality check. That’s exactly what Fresh Off the Boat actor Randall Park goes for—and succeeds—in his directorial debut, Shortcomings, a modest if witty and perceptive anti-romantic comedy set in the Bay Area (and then New York City).
Ben Tanaka (Justin H. Min) is a bitter cinephile who’s been a manager of an arthouse movie theater in Berkeley, California. For six years, he’s been dating Miko Hayashi (Ally Maki), a passionate organizer for the Pacific Asian Film Festival who tries tolerating Ben’s judgmental film snobbery. At the premiere of a glossy studio movie (a very amusing parody of a Crazy Rich Asians rip-off), Ben is honest to a fault, saying that representation doesn’t always matter. Ben and Mike soon drift apart, especially when she discovers his laptop open to porn revolving around Ben’s obvious preference (blonde, white women) and catches him talking to a new employee, a blonde punk performance artist named Autumn (Tavi Gevinson). Ben and Miko go at it, disagreeing about anything and everything, until she accepts an internship in New York City for three months — and she’s going alone. Every pot has a lid, and Ben and Miko just don’t match.
Working from a script by Adrian Tomine who adapts his own 2007 graphic novel and directed with indie-style simplicity by Park, Shortcomings takes a mirror up to the worst tendencies in Woody Allen surrogates, as well as cultural assimilation and representation in movies. It also busts down Asian-American stereotypes as much as Joy Ride. Ben is such a pill, and very much a Woody Allen-type figure, and the film knows it. Often an annoying, holier-than-thou know-it-all, he even attracts the attention of Sasha (Debby Ryan), who’s completely his type, until they’re time together is short-lived. The film doesn’t completely punish Ben, nor does it let him off the hook (thankfully).
Throughout all of this is the most likable character, Alice Kim, played by the scene-stealing Sherry Cola. Yes, it has been the summer of Sherry Cola between Joy Ride and now Shortcomings, and she gets the very most out of playing the noncommittal queer best friend who even sees the best in Ben when no one else would want to put up with him. Luckily, Alice isn’t just a sounding board with no life or her own, and one almost wishes the film’s second half focused more on Alice and her adventures. There’s also a supporting role for Jacob Batalon as one of Ben’s theater employees, who gets a cute, meta Marvel reference that goes just far enough.
There are plenty of stories about self-involved men finding their way after their twenties, but Shortcomings is more self-aware. It can be very funny in a wry, observational way, but it’s also bittersweet, ending in an unexpectedly honest and hopeful place. The racial and locational specificity, the smart and acerbic writing, and the terrific performances are what makes Randall Park’s first feature stand out in a spectacle-driven summer season.
Rating: 3.5/5
Shortcomings is currently in theaters.
