This is a movie I thought I first heard of when I was reading a list of romantic 2019 movies. Apparently my fellow film-loving cousin Soumya had already recommended it to me though. Later on my friend Hans (who’s Chinese-American and might have been particularly spoken to by this movie) wrote flatteringly about it on Facebook, my esthetician asked me if I’d seen it since she liked it, and of course I heard all the buzz about Keanu’s part.

At this point I was more than excited to watch the movie. My first thought upon seeing its stars was that this is a movie featuring the woman in the Netflix standup comedy specials that have been on the TV in my dentist’s office and the man who had the embarrassing parts in Office Christmas Party and The Interview (to be fair, also a hilariously awkward one in Ant-Man and the Wasp) but I was looking forward to letting them prove they have range.

They were great. Ali Wong is Sasha; Randall Park is Marcus. They’re millennial (although Park is much older in real life) American children of Asian immigrants and they grew up best friends. After brief scenes of when they were about 11 and 18, the film jumps ahead to them in their mid-30s in the present day.

What I appreciate is that the film doesn’t follow any tried-and-true formula. While they’re longtime friends who do the will-they-or-won’t-they thing, their issues are unique and I haven’t seem them before in a movie. Sasha is fiendishly devoted to work and shuts out emotions because her immigrant parents were so busy trying to establish themselves financially that they ignored her. Marcus is unable to spread his wings and leave home because of an unhealthy sense of devotion/obligation with his Asian parents. Of course the two sides are supposed to come together, like in classic screwball comedies, but there are some great zingers they direct at each other along the way and more importantly it’s moving watching them grow, change, and allow themselves to love each other.

I compared this to screwball comedies, a popular subgenre of romantic comedies in the 30s and 40s, because it’s about two people of wildly different ideals bickering as they come together. However, it doesn’t have the zaniness necessary to be a modern example of such a film – except in the Keanu Reeves portion! I honestly hope he gets an Academy Award nomination* for his performance as “Keanu Reeves”, one of the most pretentious douchebags you’ll ever meet LOL. Included in that portion of the movie is a hilarious skewering of trendy restaurants.** It should be mentioned that Marcus’s spacey girlfriend and his band provide additional laughs that are related. You’ll DEFINITELY want to stick around for most of the end credits.

I’ve given this movie a lot of praise and I’m positive you’ll have a good time too. Enjoy!

Up Next: You’ll never, ever guess.

Bottom line: Funny and engaging.

Agree? Disagree? Feel free to comment.

*For anyone wondering: even though this is a Netflix movie it’s eligible because (for that exact purpose) it spent a couple of days in theaters before becoming available on the service.

**In 2017 I went to my friend Seth’s wedding and they served tater tots! I spent months telling anyone who would listen how awesome it is that they didn’t go with boring wedding food and actually chose cuisine that TASTES GOOD! It’s so fitting that wedding happened the same week I saw this College Humor video.