Ali Wong and Randall Park star in this Netflix rom-com about two childhood best friends who reconnect and fall back in love.
Wong and Park are hilarious and their comedic timing helps deliver the laughs. Keanu Reeves has an extended cameo in this movie and all I can say is that you’ve never seen this side of John Wick. Also Park’s character, Marcus Kim leads a band called Hello Peril and he in particular drops some funny bars. I’m also not ashamed to say that I added two songs that the band played during the film (a.k.a. the soundtrack is nice).
I like how the film starts with Marcus and Sasha as kids and shows their relationship grow through the years until they reach college and split after a bad argument. This decision allows for the audience to gain easy backstory on the lead characters while also establishing history between the two of them. Which is somewhat different from the usual rom-com formula of the “meet-cute” moment.
I also appreciated the themes of fear, seen through Marcus’ character and his fear of taking his band to the next level–given their talent. In the film as Sasha and Marcus meet again, this is a topic of interest that she challenges his character on. Sasha also has to come to grips with her own celebrity and when she returns to her hometown, it acts as a culture shock in a way.
VERDICT:
Rom-coms are the simplest genre in film but when they are done right and are led with great energy and chemistry, they’re bound to be enjoyable 100% of the time. Ali Wong and Randall Park are perfectly cast and they bounce off each other’s energy well. The scenes that
they share with Keanu Reeves and Vivian Bang (who’s also really funny) are some of the most stand-out scenes of the year for me.
