The anti-rom com “Shortcomings,” a new film directed by Randall “Fresh Off the Boat” Park and now playing in theatres, is brave enough to center its story around an annoying twerp whose pretentiousness is matched only by his negativity and the ignorant remarks that fall so effortlessly from his lips.
Based on the 2007 graphic novel by Adrian Tomine (who wrote the script), Justin H. Min plays the antisocial Ben, a wannabe filmmaker and Berkeley arthouse theater manager. He has lots of personality, all of it bad. He says in school he was discriminated against, but not because he is Asian.
“It was because of your inherent bad personality,” says his BFF Alice (Sherry Cola).
“Exactly,” he says.
When his long-suffering girlfriend Miko (Ally Maki) accepts a temporary internship across the country in New York, he uses their “break” to selfishly dip his toe back into the dating pool. He pursues Autumn (Tavi Gevinson), a young performance artist who works at his theatre, and strikes up a relationship with Sasha (Debby Ryan), a friend of Alice who just broke up with her girlfriend.
When he realizes that he didn’t know what he had until it was gone, it’s may be too late. “Is this your rock bottom,” asks Alice. “High school was my rock bottom,” he replies unconvincingly.
“Shortcomings” does a great job of making, and keeping, its main character as toxic as possible. Director Park and Min make no attempt to shave down Ben’s rough edges, or make him more agreeable. But as unlikable as the self-loathing character is, he is compelling in his toxicity. Min is fearless in his portrayal of Ben’s foibles and flaws, and yet you feel empathy for him because he is so lost. As Alice says, “change is hard for assholes like us,” and it’s up in the air if Ben has it in him to put in the effort to embrace the change that will make his life better. It’s an unbending character you don’t normally find in movies with a romantic edge.
Clocking in at just under ninety minutes, Park’s economical film is stacked with ideas.
“Shortcomings” delivers laughs—Ben and Alice are a playful odd couple—and examines cultural expectations, but it really succeeds because of its uncompromising character study.
Based on director Karen Maine’s own experiences as a Catholic high schooler “Yes, God, Yes,” now on VOD and Blu Ray, is a look at a young woman’s sexual awakening as she grapples with the taboos that surround her faith.
Set in the early 2000s, “Yes, God, Yes” stars Natalia Dyer as Alice, a sheltered sixteen-year-old who accidentally stumbles into a racy AOL chatroom. The lewd photographs and provocative conversation are unlike anything she’s ever seen or heard and it sets her on a journey of self-discovery.
At a brisk 77-minutes (including credits) “Yes, God, Yes” is a breezy and often insightful coming-of-age story. The push and pull Alice feels between her faith and her burgeoning sexuality is sensitively handled by Maine and delicately portrayed by Dyer. Stuck between naiveté and some rather adult thoughts, she is at the cusp of great change, feeling her way through her awkward formative years. The film gives her space to do so, and each low-key revelation feels authentic.
This isn’t a movie with big moments, just a series of occasionally frank but often sweet set pieces. From Alice’s self-conscious confessions to an excruciating rendition of Peter Gabriel’s “In Your Eyes” to pretending every roasted marshmallow is a mortal sin before holding it to the fire, “Yes, God, Yes” is finely and respectfully observed. In Alice the movie finds an everyperson character, an adolescent working her way through feelings of confusion and shame in pursuit of her own pleasure.
“Yes, God, Yes” doesn’t judge its characters, even when they are too chipper to be believed or preaching abstinence-led sex education. Instead, it paints a picture of a time and place and allows the characters to inhabit it.
This week on an encore presentation of “Pop Life,” Timothy Simons stops by to talk about shooting the first episode of “VEEP” even though he was sure he would be fired at lunch, playing politics for laughs and portraying everyone’s favourite punching bag. Then the panel, Scott Reid, Rick Mercer and Kenny Robinson, weigh in on how the rules changed for comedians in the way they poke fun at politicians and if politicians who laugh at themselves have thick skins or big egos or both.
Film critic and pop culture historian Richard Crouse shares a toast with celebrity guests and entertainment pundits every week on CTV News Channel’s talk show POP LIFE.
Featuring in-depth discussion and debate on pop culture and modern life, POP LIFE features sit-down interviews with celebrities from across the entertainment world, including rock legends Sting and Meat Loaf, musicians Josh Groban and Sarah Brightman, comedian Ken Jeong, writer Fran Lebowitz, superstar jazz musician Diana Krall, stand-up comedian and CNN host W. Kamau Bell, actors Danny DeVito and Jay Baruchel, celebrity chefs Bobby Flay and Nigella Lawson, and many more.
On this encore presentation of “Pop Life,” Timothy Simons chimes in on the shooting the first episode of “VEEP” even though he was sure he would be fired at lunch, playing politics for laughs and portraying everyone’s favourite punching bag.
“What ended up happening was, when we were filming the pilot and I was incredibly nervous and on my first day when I was worried that I was going to get fired at lunch there was that thing that I had to do, which was compartmentalize the fact that I was on a giant HBO show, directed by Armando Iannucci, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus into this idea that I’ve never been on a giant HBO show before, but I have spoken to 6 people in a room before and if I focus on that it seemed more attainable.”
Film critic and pop culture historian Richard Crouse shares a toast with celebrity guests and entertainment pundits every week on CTV News Channel’s talk show POP LIFE.
Featuring in-depth discussion and debate on pop culture and modern life, POP LIFE features sit-down interviews with celebrities from across the entertainment world, including rock legends Sting and Meat Loaf, musicians Josh Groban and Sarah Brightman, comedian Ken Jeong, writer Fran Lebowitz, superstar jazz musician Diana Krall, stand-up comedian and CNN host W. Kamau Bell, actors Danny DeVito and Jay Baruchel, celebrity chefs Bobby Flay and Nigella Lawson, and many more.
On this encore presentation of “Pop Life” the panel, Scott Reid, Rick Mercer and Kenny Robinson, weigh in on how the rules changed for comedians in the way they poke fun at politicians and if politicians who laugh at themselves have thick skins or big egos or both.
Film critic and pop culture historian Richard Crouse shares a toast with celebrity guests and entertainment pundits every week on CTV News Channel’s talk show POP LIFE.
Featuring in-depth discussion and debate on pop culture and modern life, POP LIFE features sit-down interviews with celebrities from across the entertainment world, including rock legends Sting and Meat Loaf, musicians Josh Groban and Sarah Brightman, comedian Ken Jeong, writer Fran Lebowitz, superstar jazz musician Diana Krall, stand-up comedian and CNN host W. Kamau Bell, actors Danny DeVito and Jay Baruchel, celebrity chefs Bobby Flay and Nigella Lawson, and many more.
This week on “Pop Life,” Timothy Simons stops by to talk about shooting the first episode of “VEEP” even though he was sure he would be fired at lunch, playing politics for laughs and portraying everyone’s favourite punching bag. Then the panel, Scott Reid, Rick Mercer and Kenny Robinson, weigh in on how the rules changed for comedians in the way they poke fun at politicians and if politicians who laugh at themselves have thick skins or big egos or both.
Film critic and pop culture historian Richard Crouse shares a toast with celebrity guests and entertainment pundits every week on CTV News Channel’s talk show POP LIFE.
Featuring in-depth discussion and debate on pop culture and modern life, POP LIFE features sit-down interviews with celebrities from across the entertainment world, including rock legends Sting and Meat Loaf, musicians Josh Groban and Sarah Brightman, comedian Ken Jeong, writer Fran Lebowitz, superstar jazz musician Diana Krall, stand-up comedian and CNN host W. Kamau Bell, actors Danny DeVito and Jay Baruchel, celebrity chefs Bobby Flay and Nigella Lawson, and many more.
Timothy Simons on shooting the first episode of “VEEP” even though he was sure he would be fired at lunch, playing politics for laughs and portraying everyone’s favourite punching bag.
“What ended up happening was, when we were filming the pilot and I was incredibly nervous and on my first day when I was worried that I was going to get fired at lunch there was that thing that I had to do, which was compartmentalize the fact that I was on a giant HBO show, directed by Armando Iannucci, starring Julia Louis-Dreyfus into this idea that I’ve never been on a giant HBO show before, but I have spoken to 6 people in a room before and if I focus on that it seemed more attainable.”
Film critic and pop culture historian Richard Crouse shares a toast with celebrity guests and entertainment pundits every week on CTV News Channel’s talk show POP LIFE.
Featuring in-depth discussion and debate on pop culture and modern life, POP LIFE features sit-down interviews with celebrities from across the entertainment world, including rock legends Sting and Meat Loaf, musicians Josh Groban and Sarah Brightman, comedian Ken Jeong, writer Fran Lebowitz, superstar jazz musician Diana Krall, stand-up comedian and CNN host W. Kamau Bell, actors Danny DeVito and Jay Baruchel, celebrity chefs Bobby Flay and Nigella Lawson, and many more.
“If it bleeds it leads,” is an accepted mantra around newsrooms these days but back in 1974 it was a new, controversial idea. Christine Chubbuck (Rebecca Hall), an investigative reporter at a local ABC affiliate in Sarasota, Florida, was particularly disdainful of the idea until she became the poster child for news sensationalism.
In “Christine,” a based-on-true-events film, Chubbuck is working at local station WZRB. She’s a steely presence, a serious person doing light news. “People are listening to me,” she says, “so I have to be sure I’m really saying something.” Reports on strawberry festivals and local events are the station’s stock in trade but the station manager (Tracey Letts) is desperate to get higher ratings. How? “Juicier stories,” he says. “If it bleeds it leads.” When the station owner (John Cullum) decides to poach one or two of the Sarasota on-air talents for his much larger Baltimore new division, Christine sees that as a way out. “So if I get some footage of fat people burning in cars and I’m on my way to Baltimore?”
Her progression to the larger market is stymied by illness and depression—“My life is a cesspool,” she says.”—and culminates with the news reporter becoming the news. On July 15, 1974 Chubbuck was on air, reading the news when announced, “In keeping with WZRB’s policy of bringing you the latest in blood and guts, and in living color, you are going to see complete coverage of an attempted suicide,” before putting a gun to her head and pulling the trigger.
The events in “Christine” are well documented, so the shocking finale doesn’t come so much as a shock but the inevitable consequence of history. With the element of surprise removed what’s left is a look at the woman at the heart of the story. Hall plays Chubbuck as an almost otherworldly presence, someone who doesn’t quite feel comfortable in her own skin, always judging herself and those around her. “You’re not always the most approachable person,” co-worker George Ryan (Michael C. Hall) tells her, and that is the beauty of Hall’s work. In a terrific performance that elevates the movie, she plays Chubbuck as aloof but human, edgy and without a trace of sentimentality.
