Kicking off reviews from the BFI London Film Festival, Randall Park makes his directorial debut with an acidic cringe comedy adaptation from Adrian Tomine's novel, about a cinema owner who needs to direct his criticisms at others at himself.
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00:00 Out on VOD in the US and the UK, and I recently saw at the London Film Festival,
00:03 is Randall Park's directorial debut Shortcomings, based on Adrian Tomine's graphic novel.
00:08 Justin H. Min is a bitter arthouse cinema owner whose snarky passive-aggressiveness
00:13 is not only driving away his girlfriend, Ali Mackie, but also his friend, Sherry Kohler.
00:18 Shortcomings derives a lot from uncomfortable comedy, especially regarding its main character,
00:22 who is a massive a-hole who basically uses his vicious put-downs as a thinly-veiled defence
00:28 against his jealousy at other people's success.
00:31 He also clearly embarrassingly has a very obvious type, which is to say, young, blonde, white women,
00:37 especially those that are much younger than him.
00:39 I think we've all had moments where we've become unpleasant or anxious about where things are going with our lives,
00:43 but I do think the movie starts to lose momentum in its final third when he chases after his ex-girlfriend in New York.
00:49 But also, the main character is a lot to take at times, especially because he just can't help but put his foot in it.
00:56 There are certain moments where you just go, "Oh for heaven's sake, just shut up!"