Director: Dave Franco
Starring: Alison Brie, Jay Ellis, Kiersey Clemons, Julie Hagerty
Year: 2023
If You People is already the best rom-com of the year, than Someone I Used to Know is already the worst, a film with a complete lack of heart or harmony. The biggest criticism I’ve seen about You People is the main couple’s lack of chemistry, which is ridiculous; the fact that they don’t scream at each other doesn’t indicate that they don’t belong together, it means that they’re happy people in a healthy relationship that still has problems that need dealing with. Somebody I Used to Know does the exact opposite, pitting its couple against each other in unhealthy ways, which is apparently, and sadly, what we’ve come to believe represents love.
Ally started off as a free spirit and a future documentarian, but somewhere along the line sold out, and is now the creator/host of an island dating cooking competition that’s just one big, crappy punch line. When the show gets cancelled, she heads back home to her kitschy little town to decompress and see family & friends, but she doesn’t plan on running into her ex, and she definitely didn’t know that he was about to get married. Now she’ll have to break up the wedding, because she finally realizes that she didn’t want to be famous, she wanted to be loved, and that was in front of her the whole time.
I mean, you can tell from the summary that this plot is basically Hallmark, which is ridiculous generally, but especially when you think of it being written by Dave Franco and Alison Brie, like, did they really think they had an original idea that desperately needed told to the world and made into a film? Honestly, they kind of suck, and especially here, in a movie that’s basically bonkers bad, and right from the get go. Talk about no chemistry; not getting along and being contentious and hurting each other isn’t romance, we need to forget that aspect of what Hollywood has taught us. And then the writing is just awful, the plot is stupid, the side characters might as well disappear, and the entire thing feels either icky or moronic, like the filmmakers were flipping a coin to see which way they should fuck up. Brie was better in Sleeping with Other People, watch that instead, and leave this Prime original in the dark where it belongs.
My rating: ★ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆