Ben, a struggling filmmaker, lives in Berkeley, California, with his girlfriend, Miko, who works for a local Asian American film festival. When he’s not managing an art house movie theater as his day job, Ben spends his time obsessing over unavailable blond women, watching Criterion Collection DVDs, and eating in diners with his best friend Alice, a queer grad student with a serial dating habit. When Miko moves to New York for an internship, Ben is left to his own devices and begins to explore what he thinks he might want. Exposing a multiplicity of Asian American identities in a fresh and groundbreaking way, the film is poised to challenge audiences with its protagonist Ben — who is cynical and snobbish with a dash of charm — gamely played by Justin H. Min. With wit, humor and a deep understanding of being an outsider within a marginalized community, SHORTCOMINGS embraces the complexity of being human, flaws and all.
“Park proves to be a director with style and wit to spare, staging revelatory sequences that walk the narrow line between comedy and provocation…There’s also something about Park’s lightness of touch as a director especially when the film contends with thorny themes of gender politics that makes SHORTCOMINGS so satisfying.” —Poulomi Das, The Playlist “It’s going to be a tough ask to get some audiences to warm up to a film with so many unlikable characters, but SHORTCOMINGS is breezy, fun, and irreverent in the best possible way… A movie with a wicked sense of wit and humor that perfectly captures how it feels to be an outsider trying to find a sense of belonging.” —Louisa Moore, Screen Zealots
