`Shortcomings' charms, even when it's on its soapbox
In “Shortcomings,” a delighted film festival crowd gets an early peek at what is very clearly meant to be “Crazy Rich Asians,” the 2018 romantic comedy that would go on to be a cross-cultural blockbuster.
The audience is enraptured, save for Ben (Justin H. Min), who greets the film like it dumped a bucket of hot water on his cornflakes. “I know it's a little glossy, but it's ours!” he's told, and it takes every muscle in his face for Ben to muster the faintest hint of a smile.
“Shortcomings” spends the next 90 minutes or so examining Ben and presenting itself as the anti”Crazy Rich Asians.” It's a hyper-talky and overly literate comedy which, if it has a shortcoming itself, is in its presentation of characters as stand-ins for beliefs or ideas rather than as living, breathing people.
Ben is the Japanese American owner of a Bay Area cinema who doesn't realize it yet but is at a crucial turning point in his life. His girlfriend, Miko (Ally Maki), is tired of his objectifying of classic blond-haired, blueeyed ideals of beauty, and is maybe tired of him as well. His best friend Alice (“Joy Ride's” Sherry Cola) has her own life to live, and is eyeing a move to New York. And his dreams of being a filmmaker are doing about as well as his run-down arthouse theater, which is moving about eight tickets per screening and is facing shutdown.
When Miko moves across the country for an internship and proposes they take a break, Ben pursues the new ticket taker at his theater, Autumn (Tavi Gevinson), and later Sasha (Debby Ryan), whom he meets through a friend. Ben's fumbles through his love life lead him back to Miko, and to some hard-learned lessons about himself.
“Fresh Off the Boat's” Randall Park, making his directorial debut, gives “Shortcomings” a light polish, even as the script by Adrian Tomine has the characters speaking like they're all in various stages of graduate-level theses on gender studies, cultural identity and racial roles in society. In that way the movie throws back to `90s indies or `00s mumblecore titles, sometimes for better, sometimes for worse.
As Ben, Min makes an impression and holds the camera, and the actor isn't afraid to make him shabby and rough around the edges. He's “Shortcomings'” greatest strength, a guy who doesn't have it all figured out, and is just beginning to figure that out.