There’s a relatively intelligent wink-wink opening to actor Randall Park’s debut characteristic as a director, Shortcomings, which, when all is claimed and finished, principally fails to ship on its promise.

A younger couple, the aspiring filmmaker, Ben (Justin H. Min), and his girlfriend, Miko (Ally Maki), are watching what’s clearly a spoof of Loopy Wealthy Asians at a Bay Space movie competition. Ben loathes it for being a “garish mainstream rom-com that glorifies a capitalistic fantasy,” whereas Miko suppose it’s a “recreation changer” that may permit aspiring Asian-American administrators to make one thing “cooler, extra artsy or no matter.”

Shortcomings is, alas, not that cool and artsy film — neither is it the shiny popcorn bling-a-thon that turned Asians right into a worldwide smash. It’s extra just like the sort of commonplace Sundance-bound dramedy we’ve seen numerous occasions earlier than, albeit with a captivating forged and a few sharp bits of commentary on race, id and gender that come courtesy of screenwriter Adrian Tomine, who tailored his 2007 graphic novel of the identical title. After premiering in the principle competitors at Park Metropolis, it’s going to hit theaters through Roadside Sights, however will in all probability appeal to extra eyeballs on the small display screen.

Divided into brief chapters identical to Tomine’s comedian books, the movie follows the snobbish and misanthropic Ben as he navigates a dead-end life in Berkeley, the place he works at a neighborhood movie show and lives within the swank condominium of the loopy wealthy Miko, who, like Ben, is Japanese American. Though the 2 have been collectively for a while, their relationship appears to be at a standstill, so when Miko takes off for an internship in New York, Ben sees this as a second to go after the ladies he’s been fantasizing about — as evidenced by the plentiful porn Miko discovers on his laptop computer.

The truth that the porn stars are all white ladies appears to pose extra of an issue for Miko than the porn itself, however Ben doesn’t wish to hear it. He’s a born contrarian who refuses to acknowledge that his race could be a difficulty in any respect — until, that’s, when it fits him to take action. However principally he fails to listen to what each Miko and his greatest good friend, the snarky and girl-crazy Alice (Sherry Cola), have been attempting to inform him all alongside: that the principle downside with Ben is Ben.

It’s a well-known premise — the cynical delinquent dude who will undergo some stuff and be taught a worthwhile life lesson — and it tends to go in acquainted instructions as Ben, now semi-single, navigates the Bay Space courting scene, first hitting on an worker (Tavi Gevinson) and placing out earlier than hooking up with a woman on the rebound (Debby Ryan) in a short-lived fling once more examined by Ben’s contradictory emotions about race. Finally he winds up in New York, reconnecting with bestie Alice and hoping, extra out of desperation than any actual love or devotion, to maybe rekindle the flame with Miko.

That Ben just isn’t essentially the most likable of men just isn’t actually the issue right here — no person desires their protagonists to be goody two-shoes and ideal bores. The issue is the general blandness of the plotting and humor, which lacks the chunk of among the comedies Park himself has starred in (Contemporary Off the Boat, The Interview) and the bark of Tomine’s terrific output as a graphic novelist (Summer time Blonde, Killing and Dying), the place characters are sometimes guided by a lonely and determined craving for id that may by no means be fulfilled. (The French director Jacques Audiard extra efficiently tailored a number of of Tomine’s works into the 2021 drama Paris, 13^th District, an altogether darker film than this.)

Park has put collectively a robust forged, and Min (The Umbrella Academy, After Yang) carries the lead function nicely, managing to offer Ben among the edge he wants whereas nonetheless making him a man we’re alleged to root for. Maki and Cola are convincing as two ladies who see Ben fairly in another way and but see via him as nicely, whereas a couple of good cameos — particularly one by Veep’s hilarious Timothy Simons — spherical out the troupe.

The route in any other case doesn’t have a lot to tell apart it, and right here maybe a phrase to the smart: There are a couple of scenes in Shortcomings the place Ben watches traditional movies by the likes of Truffaut, Ozu and Cassavetes, eager for their greatness and even admitting at one level that he’s no Eric Rohmer, to quote one other idol of his. The issue is that we, as viewers, can also’t assist evaluating what we’re watching to no matter Ben is admiring, and it makes the, um, shortcomings stand out much more.