Shortcomings

Shortcomings

The only constant in life is (he won't) change.

20231 h 32 mintt14483774
Overview

When his girlfriend leaves for New York City on a 3-month-long internship, a strongly opinionated Berkeley arthouse movie theater manager begins exploring life as a bachelor.

Metadata
Director Randall Park
Runtime 1 h 32 min
IMDb Id tt14483774
Details
Movie Media
Movie Status
Movie Rating Very good
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The film opens with an aspiring (well, not really) filmmaker looking down on a film created by other Asian Americans.  At first I took it as a shot at some recently-made films starring asian Americans, but as the film went on I wondered if the commentary was more about the character than those movies (I suspect both).  While this movie ventured down some heavily-travelled paths, I thought it had a fresh take on the genre.  In a lot of ways it reminded me of High Fidelity, and that is indeed high praise.  Like that movie, there was comic relief but not at the expense of the bigger story.  A lesser film would have made Sherry Cola into the stereotypical friend that says and does all kinds of crazy things.  One of the main character’s observations while watching the film at the beginning of the movie is that there was no character development.  In this movie, we saw it in spades.

IHATEBadMovies.com reviews Shortcomings
Poster for the movie "Shortcomings"

Movie title: Shortcomings

Movie description: When his girlfriend leaves for New York City on a 3-month-long internship, a strongly opinionated Berkeley arthouse movie theater manager begins exploring life as a bachelor.

Date published: 2023-09-29

Director(s): Randall Park

Actor(s): 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, David Niu

Genre: Comedy, Drama, Romance

My Review

The film opens with an aspiring (well, not really) filmmaker looking down on a film created by other Asian Americans.  At first I took it as a shot at some recently-made films starring asian Americans, but as the film went on I wondered if the commentary was more about the character than those movies (I suspect both).  While this movie ventured down some heavily-travelled paths, I thought it had a fresh take on the genre.  In a lot of ways it reminded me of High Fidelity, and that is indeed high praise.  Like that movie, there was comic relief but not at the expense of the bigger story.  A lesser film would have made Sherry Cola into the stereotypical friend that says and does all kinds of crazy things.  One of the main character’s observations while watching the film at the beginning of the movie is that there was no character development.  In this movie, we saw it in spades.

  • My Review - 8/10
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