Trial By Trailer: Fresh from Tribeca 2023…take a break from comic book movies and watch…a comic book movie!
Directed by Randall Park (MCU) and starring Justin H. Min (Umbrella Academy) Shortcomings is based on Adrian Tomine’s graphic novel of the same name. (It’s Randall Park’s directorial debut.)
The 411: Ben, a struggling filmmaker, lives in Berkeley, California, with his girlfriend, Miko, who works for a local Asian American film festival. When he’s not managing an arthouse movie theater as his day job, Ben spends his time obsessing over unavailable blonde women, watching Criterion Collection DVDs, and eating in diners with his best friend Alice, a queer grad student with a serial dating habit.
(I recommend Adrian Tomine’s Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist. Like Shortcomings it’s published by Drawn & Quarterly.).
This is a classic indie movie that is sorta kinda a rom-com though most certainly is a slacker comedy. After all don’t Shortcomings often leave you Dazed and Confused?
Sammy Verdict: Not opening weekend money but I’d put on pants for this.
-28-
Sammy Younan is the affable host of My Summer Lair: think NPR’s Fresh Air meets Kevin Smith: interviews & impressions on Pop Culture.
