Delayed Reaction: Always Be My Maybe

The Pitch: "Crazy Rich Asians was so popular and it could've been ours." -Netflix

Old high school friends on much different life trajectories meet again, years later, and realize they've always liked each other.

People have a hard time with the idea that the film industry is slow. There's no such thing as a quick turnaround for anything. Projects will sit in pre-production for years. Scripts may be rewritten a dozen times. Putting together a cast and crew takes some time. Even if filming only takes a couple weeks, then it has to go through editing and inserting visual effects. Hopefully there isn't the need to any ADR or reshoots. Even then, a movie may sit for a while while the distributor (if it has one) looks for the right place on the calendar to release it. The movie industry can't move as quickly as social media. Normally, it's a discussion of years, not months or days. That's why I was frustrated by the second year of #OscarSoWhite when it happened. Yes, it's good to make sure the studios knew that they were still on the hot seat, but what did people really expect to change in a year? People were legitimately surprised that the issue wasn't fixed quicker. That's a whole other rant though. I bring up how slowly things change for a reason.

Always Be My Maybe is a Romantic Comedy with a predominately Asian or Asian-American cast. Kind of like Crazy Rich Asians. They even both star cast members from Fresh Off the Boat. This sure looks like Netflix rushed out a movie to capitalize on the success of Crazy Rich Asians. That's really not the case though. Sure it helps. I'd be a fool to suggest otherwise. But, filming for this movie began months before Crazy Rich Asians came out. It was a project that old friends Ali Wong and Randall Park had been working on for a while. Wong was a homegrown Netflix talent. This was their bet on her. If anything, the motivation for this movie was Set It Up or maybe even The Christmas Prince. It's funny how Crazy Rich Asians was a breakthrough showcase for actors of Asian decent, and there was already more in the Hollywood pipeline before is became a success.

What's really interesting is how I barely heard a thing about Crazy Rich Asians comparisons though when this came out. Because everyone was too busy talking about Keanu Reeves.

The Keanu Reeves extended cameo is pretty great. Keanu is really comfortable with his own limitations and his public persona these days. I don't need to see him start making cameos with Jon Hamm-like frequency (they're called "Hamm-eos", btw), but the occasional appearance to skewer his rapidly growing mythology is more than welcome.

This isn't my favorite RomCom of all time, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Wong and Park have good chemistry. They both play to their comedic strengths - Wong is bossy and rude, Park is so lovable that he can get away with a lot. James Saito as Park's father is sweet in a funny way. Charlene Yi, Michelle Buteau, and Casey Wilson all get a few good zingers. The worst thing I can say about it is that I smiled more than I laughed.

Verdict: Weakly Recommend