Even before Rental<\/em> was released, news dropped of the rom-com they wrote during quarantine. Much like what they attempted to do with Rental<\/em>, this love story is going to be, as Franco said<\/a>, \u201ca smarter, more elevated version of a romantic comedy.\u201d Well, here we are with Somebody I Used to Know<\/em>, a movie named after that gotdamn Gotye song that\u2019s always playing when you\u2019re trying on pants at a clothing store.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Once again, Franco is behind the lens while Brie is in front as Ally, the textbook career-minded gal who doesn\u2019t have her shit together in the romance department. A one-time would-be documentary filmmaker, she\u2019s now in LA running the reality show Dessert Island<\/em>. When her show gets canceled, she takes a trip back home to Leavenworth \u2013 the Washington tourist town, not the Kansas prison. (With the way she begrudgingly returns home, Ally does make it seem like she\u2019s heading back to jail.) <\/p>\n\n\n\n After finding out her mother (Julie Hagerty \u2014 because, of course) is getting her back blown out on the regular by Ally\u2019s third-grade teacher, she drowns her sorrows at a bar, where she runs into old ex Sean (Jay Ellis). They end up having a fun day together (which consists of downing lots of pretzels and cheese), which Ally mistakes for Sean rekindling a spark. Little does she know that dude is actually about to get married to Cassidy (Kiersey Clemons), a bisexual punk rocker who immediately senses trouble when Ally starts hanging around. (Since two people named Sean and Cassidy are getting hitched, it appears as though either Brie or Franco is showing love to the \u201870s heartthrob-turned-TV drama showrunner.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n If anything, Franco and Brie prove that you can make a mediocre rom-com where people of color play integral parts. They don\u2019t have to be the sassy comic relief \u2013 they can actually be the ones the pale-faced star wants to bone. They even have a mustachioed Danny Pudi (Brie\u2019s ol\u2019 Community<\/em> co-star) as a friend who basically serves as the audience surrogate, reminding Brie and Ellis\u2019s characters that every move they make is wrong AF.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Franco and Brie also don\u2019t comprehend how bad the optics look with this film. I mean, it\u2019s a rom-com where a white woman disrupts the nuptials of two people of color. They better pray that sistas don\u2019t discover this film and make Brie the poster child for white women who want to destroy Black relationships. I don\u2019t even understand why Ellis, who is still an emblem of Black-women scorn for all the fuckboi shit he did on the HBO show Insecure<\/em>, agreed to do this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Yes, Somebody I Used to Know <\/em>is Franco and Brie once again trying to breathe fresh, new life into a stale movie genre. But, apart from bringing some more multicultural flavor, it\u2019s another toxic, tiresome love train you and your significant other can get on this Valentine\u2019s Day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n C-<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n “Somebody I Used to Know” is streaming Friday on Amazon Prime.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/crookedmarquee.com\/stage8\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/somebody2-1024x683.jpg\")
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If this sounds too much like My Best Friend\u2019s Wedding<\/em> to you, you\u2019re not alone. Even Clemons\u2019s character asks if Brie\u2019s protagonist is gonna pull the same shit Julia Roberts pulled in that date-night favorite. While it\u2019s evident that Brie and Franco are in a subversive mood, making a far-fetched rom-com with well-rounded characters, it\u2019s still a far-fetched rom-com. As much as Brie, Ellis and Clemons work together to play flawed people in an f\u2019d-up love triangle, ridiculous, cringeworthy, goofy-ass hijinks (we\u2019re going streaking!<\/em><\/a>) still ensue. Believe it or not, most of it is done by Haley Joel Osment, who basically gets his Jack Black on as Sean\u2019s wacky brother.<\/p>\n\n\n\n