Home Movie Reviews Shortcomings Review: Park’s Debut Aptly Mines Racial Politics For Humor [Sundance]

Randall Park bets big in Shortcomings, casting the charming Justin H. Min as a charmless man-child, and the humor mostly hits the spot.

Justin Min and Sherry Cola in Shortcomings

Shortcomings, based on Adrian Tomine’s graphic novel and adapted by the author himself, makes for a strong directorial feature debut by Randall Park. The movie aims to be both an untraditional rom-com (emphasis on the comedy part) and an examination of race relations within relationships, and it manages not to lose focus even if it never rises to greatness. Park bets big in Shortcomings, casting the charming Justin H. Min (The Umbrella Academy) as a charmless man-child, and the humor mostly hits the spot.

Ben Tanaka (Min) is an aspiring filmmaker who spends his time managing an arthouse movie theater rather than working on his craft. He is blessed with a beautiful and rich girlfriend, Miko (Ally Maki), whom he openly disdains in favor of white women. Naturally, he is blindsided when she accepts an exciting offer to move to New York instead of sticking around to be second best for him. With his serial-dating best friend Alice (Sherry Cola, Good Trouble) by his side, Ben starts to pursue the blondes of his dreams before reality forces him to face his own shortcomings.

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Shortcomings opens and (nearly) closes with a parody of Crazy Rich Asians — featuring spectacular cameos from Stephanie Hsu and Ronnie Chieng — that is simultaneously its most bombastic set piece and its most poignant commentary on representation. Ben’s point about a by-the-numbers rom-com being treated as the pinnacle of Asian representation is undercut by his own obvious attraction to whiteness, but the shades of gray with which Tomine’s script paints the issue are very intentional. Ben believes he knows what’s best for everyone, from his girlfriend to his best friend to the new girl at the movie theater, but he has no idea how he comes across.

To the film’s credit, as with the graphic novel before it, Ben isn’t meant to be read as a straightforward hero. His very large blindspots are part of the painful process of growing up, and Shortcomings is calculated to make audiences root for that growth throughout. The subplot of Alice finding love with Meredith (Sonoya Mizuno in a role that does her far more favors than House of the Dragon) helps greatly, as it offers real romance to contrast with Ben’s almost mercenary relationships. The newly happy couple also provide him with a sounding board or a reality check as needed, both important ingredients in the protagonist’s intended redemption arc.

Shortcomings’ biggest flaw is baked into its narrative, because Ben has stooped so low by the end of the film that it’s almost impossible to believe he can turn things around in the available runtime. If he does at all, it’s thanks to Min being a magnetic performer and to the strength of his heartwarming friendship with fellow problematic fave Alice. With an eye for humor and strong source material to work with, Park skillfully crafts a debate about the role racial identity plays in adult relationships. However, the screenplay doesn’t leave much room for the conclusion to breathe, leaving one to wonder if the story would have been better served as a series.

At the end of the day, what matters is that a film like Shortcomings exists, and that Randall Park was given the chance to leave his mark on it. There are nuances to Ben’s story that cannot be covered in less than two hours, but all the other elements come together to bring life to his realistically flawed character. With the help of a fantastic ensemble, including a short but impactful appearance by Veep’s Timothy Simons, Shortcomings will have audiences thinking as well as laughing after the credits roll.

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Shortcomings premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival on January 22. The film is 92 minutes long and is rated PG-13.