REVIEW: Somebody I Used to Know [2023]

Rating: R | Runtime: 106 minutes
Release Date: February 10th, 2023 (USA)
Studio: Amazon Prime Video
Director(s): Dave Franco
Writer(s): Dave Franco & Alison Brie

Most people are desperate to tell you how they feel, they’re just… you know, they need permission to do so.

A little self-awareness goes a long way. It didn’t matter how charming Alison Brie’s Ally was at the start of Dave Franco’s Somebody I Used to Know or how much genuine fun it seemed she and Jay Ellis’ Sean were having once an impromptu meeting at an old haunt in their hometown spirals into an all-night adventure the likes they hadn’t experienced together in over ten years.

The moment we discover that he’s about to marry Kiersey Clemons’ Cassidy and witness the soul-crushing blow Ally is hit with in the wake of admitting it might have been a mistake to choose her career over him way back when, all I could think about was My Best Friend’s Wedding. Thankfully, Franco and Brie (real-life couple and co-writers) did too. So, they wrote the comparison in to make sure we knew they knew. And with that out of the way, I was able to let their film exist on its own.

I’m glad too because there’s a lot more happening here than your run-of-mill love triangle. While that is where most of the comedy comes in, (Ally is trying to ruin things so she can win Sean back only to realize Cassidy is pretty cool and doesn’t deserve to be sabotaged), the film’s real success lies with its characters and interest in ensuring they all are drawn as complex people rather than stock archetypes.

Take Danny Pudi’s Benny, for example. He’s the Rupert Everett to Brie’s Julia Roberts, but he’s also just as close to Sean. Benny is therefore positioned to be a conscience instead of a wingman for laughs. He’s there to support both of his old friends even if that means protecting them from themselves. It’s not enough nuance to fully offset the familiar beats, but it is enough to help us invest in them as more than just lazy tropes.

It’s that willingness to call out characters that got me to start sitting straighter in my seat throughout. Cassidy’s justified estrangement from her parents should be enough to stop Sean from constantly telling her she’ll regret their absence. Sean’s repeat desire for picket-fence, close-knit family shouldn’t be worth more than the independence and autonomy the women he falls in love with need to be more than his romantic ideal of a manufactured happily-ever-after.

And Ally’s obvious sense of having sold out to make her dreams work in the context of industry advancement shouldn’t be ignored when what she sacrificed to meet those demands outweighs the spoils they supply. These are all complicated people (besides Haley Joel Osment’s Jeremy, who is written to be an open-book of simplistic desires) trying to find their footing in the murky space between past and future. It’s time to finally live in the present (like Julie Hagerty, stealing scenes as Ally’s Mom).

The title is two-fold as a result. Sean fell in love with Cassidy because she reminded him of who Ally was. Ally wants Cassidy’s happiness for the same reason. The more she pries, however, the more she sees just how familiar things truly are—so much so that this ill-conceived clandestine mission to steal another woman’s man born from regret actually shows her that the regret she’s feeling isn’t for leaving Sean.

It’s for the gradual shift away from that which she left him to pursue. Because showrunning a reality TV show is a far-cry from hard-hitting documentaries. Just like she didn’t want to lose herself in Sean’s shadow by throwing the opportunity to pursue her art away, she also shouldn’t throw passion in all sectors of life away for vapidly forgettable entertainment. Happiness is about compromise. Not only with your partners and family, but also with yourself.