Justin H. Min in Trailer for ‘Shortcomings’ Comedy from Randall Park

Justin H. Min in Trailer for ‘Shortcomings’ Comedy from Randall Park

by Alex Billington
June 14, 2023
Source: YouTube

“While the cat’s away, the mouse will play.” Sony Pictures Classics has unveiled the official trailer for an excellent indie comedy called Shortcomings, which premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival earlier this year. I saw this at the fest and really enjoyed it, it’s a fresh and surprisingly honest romantic comedy about the experiences of Asian Americans – told from an entirely different perspective. The story follows a trio of young Bay Area urbanites – Ben Tanaka, Miko Hayashi, and Alice Kim – as they navigate a range of interpersonal relationships, traversing the country seeking the ideal connection. Shortcomings is directed by comedian / actor Randall Park, making his feature directorial debut. It’s based on the graphic novel of the same name by Adrian Tomine. The film stars Justin H. Min as Ben, Sherry Cola as Alice, Ally Maki as Miko, Debby Ryan, Tavi Gevinson, Sonoya Mizuno, Jacob Batalon, and Timothy Simons. I wrote in my review how great Park is as a director, “handing all of the unique characters, the emotions, the realism, the honesty, the dishonesty, the messiness, the quirkiness, and the humor with grace.” Check it out.

Here’s the official trailer (+ poster) for Randall Park’s Shortcomings, direct from YouTube:

Ben (Justin H. Min), a struggling filmmaker, lives in Berkeley, California, with his girlfriend, Miko, who works for a local Asian American film festival. When he’s not managing an arthouse movie theater as his day job, Ben spends his free time obsessing over unavailable blonde women, watching Criterion Collection DVDs, and eating in diners with his best friend Alice, a queer grad student with her own serial dating habit. When Miko moves to New York for an internship, Ben is left to his own devices, and begins to explore what he thinks he might want. Shortcomings is directed by American comedian / actor / filmmaker Randall Park, making his feature directorial debut after some TV directing gigs previously. The screenplay is written by Adrian Tomine, adapted from Tomine’s own graphic novel of the same name. Produced by Jennifer Berman, Lia Buman, Howard Cohen, Eric d’Arbeloff, Michael Golamco, Margot Hand, Hieu Ho, and Randall Park. This initially premiered at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival earlier this year (read our review). Sony Classics debuts Shortcomings in select US theaters starting August 4th, 2023 this summer.

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