Adrian Tomine's 2007 graphic novel Shortcomings is a sharp, insightful, and dryly funny story with a protagonist who could easily be described as insensitive, self-centered, and condescending. That doesn't sound like something that would lend itself to an accessible film adaptation, but Tomine and director Randall Park have made Shortcomings into an entertaining, audience-friendly movie while remaining faithful to Tomine's original story. Park's version of Shortcomings is brighter and glossier than Tomine's graphic novel, but it retains the source material's acerbic wit and commitment to unlikeable characters.
There's something charming about the proud misanthropy of frustrated filmmaker and movie theater manager Ben Tagawa (After Yang's Justin H. Min), who bluntly speaks his mind even when -- sometimes especially when -- it isn't called for. Shortcomings opens with an amusing parody of a Crazy Rich Asians-style upscale dramedy starring Asian-American actors, featuring cameos from Stephanie Hsu and Ronnie Chieng. Ben derides the movie for its crass superficiality, while his girlfriend Miko (Ally Maki) sees it as an important step for Asian-American representation onscreen and is proud to show it at the film festival she helps run.
Ben and Miko's argument over the movie expands into an argument about their relationship, which seems to apply to everything they ever argue about. Tomine and Park deftly balance issues of Asian-American identity with the characters' personal drama, intertwining the two in a way that makes the larger themes central to the story without ever coming across as heavy-handed. Miko is offended at Ben's apparent obsession with white women, while Ben insists on ignoring or dismissing racial dynamics. Their various disagreements culminate in Miko's decision to leave the California Bay Area for an internship with an Asian-American film institute in New York City.
Although they agree to be on a Friends-style "break," Ben almost immediately starts pursuing other women once Miko leaves. He starts with Autumn (Tavi Gevinson), a young employee at the theater where he works, and moves on to Sasha (Debby Ryan), whom he meets at a party he attends with his lesbian best friend Alice (Joy Ride's Sherry Cola). Shortcomings may look like a romantic comedy at first, but its central relationship is the friendship between Ben and the slightly less misanthropic Alice, who share a jaded outlook on romance and dating.
Cola is hilarious as the womanizing Alice, whose charisma helps compensate for Ben's sourness. She serves as both an angel and a devil on his shoulder at various times, criticizing his misogynistic perspective but also encouraging some of his toxic behavior. Shortcomings eventually shifts from Berkeley to New York City, where Alice travels for a fresh start after dropping out of grad school, and Ben follows her so he can spy on Miko. Park effectively captures the different vibes of both cities, never buying into Ben's disdain for New York.
Park is best known as a comedic actor, with credits including sitcoms Fresh Off the Boat and Young Rock and a recurring Marvel Cinematic Universe role as federal agent Jimmy Woo. He makes an impressive directorial debut with Shortcomings, which has some echoes of his work as co-writer on 2019's Netflix rom-com Always Be My Maybe, but with a stronger point of view on racial identity and gender relations. That point of view comes from Tomine, who faithfully adapts his graphic novel while updating it for the modern age of social media.
Visually, Park's Shortcomings is slicker and more vibrantly colorful than Tomine's work, which showcases frumpier characters in more ramshackle environments, but Park doesn't tone down the bracing cynicism while making the movie more aesthetically accessible. He even throws in a handful of shots that mimic panels from the graphic novel. Park generates comedy from the kind of transitions that don't work in comics, cutting from one scene to another in the middle of a line or juxtaposing tender emotional moments with vulgar jokes.
The snobby Ben is seen watching highbrow foreign art films from directors like Yasujiro Ozu and John Cassavetes and turns down sex with Miko to finish his latest viewing of Francois Truffaut's The 400 Blows. He even compares himself to filmmaker Eric Rohmer. Shortcomings is clearly influenced by Rohmer's small-scale dramas about romantic ennui among intellectuals. It also recalls the work of Noah Baumbach, especially 2010's Greenberg, whose misanthropic title character (played by Ben Stiller) has a lot in common with Ben.
Thanks to Min, Ben is always appealing to spend time with even when he's acting like a total jerk, and the chemistry between Min and Cola is strong enough that Shortcomings could coast on their banter alone. Park and Tomine have more to offer than that, though, and Shortcomings is a thoughtful, uncompromising comedy about romantic self-sabotage. Park ends the movie with a slightly more conventional wrap-up but never undermines Tomine's satisfyingly clear-eyed artistic vision.
Shortcomings opens on Friday, August 4, in select theaters.