Adrian Tomine

Ben (Justin H. Min) is a spectacular dickhead. He’s tactless, arrogant, selfish and mean. And in Randall Park’s directorial debut Shortcomings, Ben is about to become the main character of a film where he finds out that not everything always necessarily revolves around him. Beginning with an undisguised parody of Crazy Rich Asians to which Ben has an emphatically negative reaction, Shortcomings wears its discourse on its sleeve. But this is Ben’s story, and as an objectively awful person it’s no small accomplishment that we care so much to join him on his journey.

Shortcomings is based on a graphic novel by Adrian Tomine and is helmed by Fresh Off the Boat’s Randall Park. This is the sitcom stars’ first foray into directing and he keeps the storyline floating and cruises into the dock at a taut one and a half hours. That seems hard to do these days. What is refreshing about Shortcomings is it focuses on real life struggles of not just Asian-Americans, but all nationalities of people who just want to succeed and be loved. Characters sometimes come up short, but it has nothing to do with their height.