While the writers in Hollywood are on strike, this movie is the perfect example of how actors need good screenwriters. In this film, Sherry Cola’s character as the lesbian best friend – is outstanding. Everything she says is sassy and funny. You love every second she’s on screen. Yet in another Asian comedy she did last month (Joy Ride), I hated everything she said, and every second she was on screen talking about sex.
Another pleasant surprise with this movie is how Ben Tanaka (Justin Min) was a bit of a jerk early on, and he slowly starts to become more of a jerk. I said to my wife, “I don’t really like this character.”
But I’m of the belief that you don’t have to like the protagonist. Yet I was thinking, there’s no way in this short amount of time his character can change, so if at the end he’s being sweet to his girlfriend, I won’t buy it. And happily, I wasn’t disappointed by his arc, or any of the characters in this. I enjoyed it from the opening, which I think was poking fun at “Crazy Rich Asians” – to making fun of Tarantino a bit, and reminding me of the characters running the record store in “High Fidelity.”
This is from a 2007 graphic novel, adapted by Adrian Tomine, and the first film directed by actor Randal Park (he gives himself a great cameo, along with Oscar nominee Stephanie Hsu from “Everything Everywhere All At Once”).
Ben is a failed filmmaker who also manages an art house movie theater in Berkeley. He’s a self-loathing Asian man, pining for blonde women. Sure, he has an attractive girlfriend named Miko (Ally Maki), but you see them starting to drift apart. A perfect example of how sharp this is written, involves a scene with the girlfriend finding porn with all blonde women on his computer, and his explanation of it.
Miko surprises Ben with an announcement that she’s going to New York for an internship. This means that the new blonde (Tavi Gevinson) that just got hired at the movie theater, might result in an affair (where they go with that relationship, and her performance art – is hysterical).
One of my pet peeves in movies is when I can’t figure out why two characters are best friends; or why a couple is dating. In this, we understand why Alice (Sherry Cola) and Ben meet up at diners to talk sh** about everyone. They’re great conversations (and I’m sick of the bottles of ketchup always being empty, too!). Even the couple that’s fighting…feels like real people. He wants to watch some indie movie late at night, and she wants to go to bed. She helps run a film festival, and he’s snotty about the picture everyone enjoyed. These are annoyances, but not necessarily deal breakers for a relationship (and boy was it annoying to occasionally hear my wife, upon hearing a cynical comment Ben would make about a movie, “Does this remind you of anyone?”).
It was also refreshing that all these characters were smart. In the third act, when things move to New York, we meet Meredith (Sonoya Mizuno), who doesn’t particularly like Ben, but is always civil to him and offers some good advice. There’s fashion designer Leon (Timothy Simons). In a weaker comedy, he would have been a complete goofball that the audience is supposed to hate. He brings some humor and intelligence to the character.
There were small roles that were enjoyable, too. Movie theater workers that again, remind me of the record store staff in “High Fidelity.” A few other possible suitors for the main characters, that again, aren’t written like idiotic movie cliches, but feel like real people. It reminded me of how good some of those early mumblecore films were.
Ronnie Chieng (who I loved on “The Daily Show” and in the surprisingly fun horror movie “Megan” last year), only has one scene as a waiter, but it’s funny.
And the Cinephiles will love some of the movie references (that most won’t get). They should especially love the movie posters in the background.
I remember seeing the trailers for this months ago and thinking it looked like a cute romantic comedy, but feared it would be bad. Currently, it’s on my Top 10 movies of the year list.
Luckily, the movie only had a few shortcomings, so I’m able to give it 4 stars out of 5.