Shortcomings (2023)

Jack and I liked a lot this biting comedy about three Bay Area people managing their love lives and careers. Justin H. Min, Sherry Cola, and Ally Maki lead the large cast that includes Tavi Gevinson and Debby Ryan and cameos by Ronny Chieng, Stephanie Hsu, and Randall Park. 

Park makes his feature directorial debut, working from a tight script by Adrian Tomine, based on his graphic novel. It's notable that the main protagonist Ben (played by Min) is amusingly snarky and unlikeable. This just in: Tomine drew a New Yorker cover that I particularly loved, depicting lockdown dating. Enjoy it at this link.

Gene Back provides the soundtrack, streamable on Apple Music and probably elsewhere.

I think I recall fun location shots of San Francisco and New York.

Min was last blogged for After Yang, Hsu for Everything Everywhere All at Once, for which she was Oscar-nominated, Park for acting in Straight Up, and Back for Holler. After Cola's seven episodes of I Love Dick and much more, she starred in Joy Ride, which we saw in September but I forgot to write about it––I'll get to it soon. Maki's 20 year resume includes three episodes of Hacks and Gevinson's includes Enough Said and one episode of The Other Two as herself. Ryan looked familiar to me but I can't say why.

Chieng is a hilarious Daily Show correspondent and has made appearances in Joy Ride, Crazy Rich Asians, and one episode of Awkwafina Is Nora from Queens. This is Tomine's second screenplay

Rotten Tomatoes's critics and audiences, averaging 84 and 85%, respectively, find few shortcomings with this picture. I was eager to see it and we rented it on iTunes/Apple TV at our first opportunity, October 19.