I’ve had my eye on the 2019 Netflix film starring comedian Ali Wong & Randall Park for a while now. Especially after I saw Wong’s two comedy stand-up specials on the streaming site called “Baby Cobra” and “Hard Knock Wife”. I would choose to see them again over this film, had I known how mediocre it was. Well, that’s the short way of summing up my review.
Directed by Nahnatchka Khan, “Always Be My Maybe” is a romantic comedy about celebrity chef Sasha who runs into her estranged best-friend after 15 years when she flies to San Francisco to set up her new restaurant. Will sparks fly between the two? Will they rekindle their friendship and take it to the next level? That’s the rest of the film.
There is a crazy cameo in the film that made me go “WHAAAAAAAAT????”, because I usually do not read up on stuff that I want to watch, so there is some surprise element left for the makers to thrill me as a viewer. But despite that advantage, this film was a bit of a predictable mess.
While Ali Wong is pretty damn good on the stage with her comedy, on film, as a celebrity chef, she is not very convincing and is unable to get into the skin of the character. You can see a lot of her real personality overpowering the role and that just does not work. Randall Park is also underwhelming as the small-time musician and just doesn’t have the charm for the bit. If you didn’t know – these guys are the producers of the film. I am saying this, because, frankly, I don’t think they would have got this job otherwise. Perhaps Awkwafina (of crazy rich Asians) fame would have made a more fun Sasha and either Harry Shum Junior or Alex Landi for the musician role.
This was a 4/10 for me and I don’t think there is anything memorable about it. It’s been three days since I saw it and I cannot recall anything worth typing down, so just gonna keep it short. If you think “maybe I should watch this film on the weekend”, I would say “maybe not”.