Shortcomings, 2023.
Directed by Randall Park.
Starring Justin H. Min, Sherry Cola, Ally Maki, Tavi Gevinson, Debby Ryan, Sonoya Mizuno, Stephanie Hsu, Ronny Chieng, Jacob Batalon, Timothy Simons, Theo Iyer, Scott Seiss, Nikhaar Kishnani, Boran Anh, George Deihl Jr., Melanie J. Newby, Jess Nahikian, Adam Enright, Daniel Hank, Randall Park, and David Niu.
SYNOPSIS:
Follows a trio of young, Bay Area urbanites–Ben Tanaka, Miko Hayashi and Alice Kim–as they navigate a range of interpersonal relationships while traversing the country in search of the ideal connection.
Randall Park has had an eclectic career across blockbusters like Ant-Man and Aquaman, comedies and smaller independent films. He now makes his directorial debut with the comedy film Shortcomings which premiered at Sundance in January. It is adapted from Adrian Tomine’s graphic novel of the same name and Tomine is on hand to write the screenplay.
Shortcomings revolves around Ben (Justin H. Min), an aspiring screenwriter and cinephile who runs a cinema in San Francisco, and his girlfriend Miko (Ally Maki) who is involved in the film world herself and more politically active than Ben. Miko suddenly accepts an internship in New York, leaving Ben to himself and putting thousands of miles between the pair who had been arguing.
At this point, Ben and his close friend Alice (Sherry Cola) become our central pairing. Alice’s eccentric nature contrasts with Ben’s timidness. The pair have fine chemistry, keeping the film on track and bringing in plenty of laughs along the way. Whenever Alice is on screen there is a sense of fun and chaos. It is clear from the outset that Ben is not an especially likeable protagonist, lusting after several women he encounters, who to Alice and Miko’s annoyance are white.
Audiences will be kept entertained by Ben’s attitude and interactions with his colleagues and the people encountered throughout. It is not surprising Park is able to handle comedy so well, but it is frustrating that the ultimate product is a tad surface level with not much beneath its laughs.
As a debut there are plenty of signs of promise, clearly, this is a passion project for Park, a commentary on Asian representation in movies, poking fun throughout at the success of Crazy Rich Asians in particular. It will be interesting to see how he follows this up with future projects. Whether or not Shortcomings will work for audiences depends on how much sympathy they feel for Ben, he is certainly not instantly likeable and while there is an attempt to give him some redemption, his behaviour throughout keeps him more irritating than sympathetic.
Shortcomings is a constantly entertaining directorial debut for Randall Park with engaging performances and laughs aplenty, where it falls short is in its characters and making them likable enough for audiences to truly care. But for the most part, this is made up for in a bright and breezy 90 minutes.
Flickering Myth Rating – Film: ★ ★ ★ / Movie: ★ ★ ★
Chris Connor
