SUNDANCE23 REVIEW: Shortcomings [2023]

Rating: R | Runtime: 92 minutes
Release Date: August 4th, 2023 (USA)
Studio: Sony Pictures Classics
Director(s): Randall Park
Writer(s): Adrian Tomine / Adrian Tomine (graphic novel)

Just because I’m a hypocrite doesn’t mean I’m wrong.

There’s a great moment in Randall Park’s Shortcomings (adapted by Adrian Tomine from his own graphic novel) where a character who’s about to leave the scene feels compelled to come back and tell the main character (Justin H. Min’s Ben) exactly what he needs to hear to have any chance for personal growth despite knowing he most likely won’t hear it.

She (I feel like naming her is a spoiler even though the film is about how Ben literally cannot maintain any romantic relationships and thus saying that this specific connection implodes shouldn’t ruin anything) tells him that regardless of every political/gendered/racial excuse he’s surely conjuring in his head for why love keeps failing him, the one true reason is him. He’s the common denominator. He’s the problem.

It’s a great revelation too since Ben is, in many ways, written like so many lead characters in rom-coms that are meant to be “the cool apathetic guy” we’re supposed to root for. Where those films would use his pretension, insecurities, and sarcastic deflection as relatable traits to be championed as quirks that those around him have learned to accept, however, Tomine and Park lift that veil to show the psychological and emotional immaturity they actually portray.

Because Ben isn’t the smartest guy in the room calling everyone out on their bullshit. He’s the child projecting his own bullshit onto others to feign superiority in the hopes everyone doesn’t realize just how inferior he is. You can only skate by on charm for so long before everyone around you discovers they’ve evolved to the point of needing to leave you behind so as not to be left stranded with you.

That doesn’t mean we don’t still root for Ben, though. The difference is that we aren’t rooting for him to get “the girl.” Whether we’re talking about Miko (Ally Maki) who went to NYC for an internship to take a breather from him, a younger co-worker in Autumn (Tavi Gevinson), or a potential flame in Sasha (Debby Ryan), these women aren’t in the movie to be prizes.

Ben, of course, thinks they are, but we know differently because they’re written to know it too. They aren’t going to just laugh at his petty grievances or ignore his rampant hypocrisy. They’re going to make certain he knows the errors of his way and watch as he tries to turn the table with a Pee-wee Herman “I know you are, but what am I?” zinger. We’re therefore rooting for him to open his eyes. And the real test is whether his infinite wealth of obliviousness still rules him when his best friend inevitably switches sides.

This dynamic between Ben and Alice (Sherry Cola) is the linchpin to everything because they are so similar at the start. Even though she’s a player casually hooking up with any woman she finds attractive and he’s in a committed monogamous relationship with Miko, their attitudes and actions are identical.

It therefore says more about Miko that she and Ben have been together for so long than it does him. Because the moment Alice finds real love is the moment a lightbulb goes off for her to realize the changes she’ll need to make to preserve it—something that has yet to happen with Ben despite six years of domesticity. It’s about compromise and introspection. It’s about judging yourself by the criteria you’re quick to judge others with in order to admit you’re not perfect either.

So, while Shortcomings is objectively funny, it’s also quite heartbreaking in the ways in which it depicts just how willing the Bens of the world are to stubbornly sabotage their own happiness than admit they’re to blame. I think Park handles the tone well enough that any awkwardness is generally overshadowed by the authentically drawn from what often prove to be pointed conclusions to each “lesson.”

We laugh with Ben, laugh at him, and ultimately pity him once we recognize just how lost he is to society’s game of demanding a specific brand of exceptionalism when the simplicity of being yourself and owning your flaws is the real victory. Will he get there? Who knows? This is just the first step.