Always Be My Maybe Review: A Familiar Albeit Charismatic Rom-Com
- naterichard98
- Jul 20, 2019
- 2 min read
DIRECTED BY: NAHNATCHKA KHAN STARRING: ALI WONG, RANDALL PARK, & KEANU REEVES
RATED PG-13 FOR SEXUAL CONTENT, DRUG USE/REFERENCES, AND LANGUAGE
LENGTH: 101 MINUTES
It's hard to deny that the Rom-Com is making a comeback with films like Crazy Rich Asians and The Big Sick all becoming either critical hits, box office smash hits, cultural phenomenons, or all of the above. Netflix is one of the key studios behind this, last summer they released RomComs from the likes of To All The Boys I've Loved Before (which has a sequel due to debut on the streamer next year), Set It Up, and The Kissing Booth (which also has a sequel in production). This year Netflix has been trying to replicate some of that success with films like the Gina Rodriquez-vehicle Someone Great, Noah Centineo's third film with the service The Perfect Date, and now the Ali Wong and Randall Park led Always Be My Maybe.
The film follows Sasha and Marcus, played by Wong and Park, two childhood best friends turned brief lovers who have since gone their separate ways. Sasha is a celebrity chef who in the movie's words is an 'Asian Oprah', while Marcus still lives with his widower father as a repairman and plays in an alternative rock band. Through after a series of coincidences they rekindle their friendship which eventually leads to, you guessed it, romance.
Always Be My Maybe doesn't do anything new for the romantic-comedy genre, but it's clear that it wasn't director Nahnatchka Khan's intention to do so. The film mainly works because of its endearing leads, Wong and Park, who have excellent chemistry with each other and make the film work as well as it does. The supporting cast around the two is surprisingly strong here too, James Saito has a couple of good moments as Marcus's father and Michelle Buteau has some great one-liners as Veronica, Sasha's best friend. Though its the internet's boyfriend Keanu Reeves who very nearly steals the entire movie playing an exaggerated version of himself.
The film's screenplay is written in a way that it almost feels like a modern day Nora Ephron screenplay. It certainly has the tropes of every romantic comedy, but it does so with a sense of awareness and plenty of heart. Though the film is also at the same time insanely predictable, it is almost too easy to tell what each scene is going to entail and how the film is going to end.
All that being said, Always Be My Maybe is a delight and is easily one of Netflix's strongest romcoms as of yet. It's definitely worth a stream.
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