Title: Good on Paper
MPAA Rating: Unrated
Director: Kimmy Gatewood
Starring: Iliza Shlesinger, Margaret Cho, Ryan Hansen
Runtime: 1 hr 32 mins
What It Is: Andrea (Shlesinger) has not had the best of luck with dating. Most of the men she runs into aren’t what you’d call grade-a. When on a flight she meets the rather vanilla Dennis (Hansen) the two hit it off and become friends. As the friendship begins to turn romantic her best friend Margot (Cho) isn’t as trusting of Dennis’ wild stories and what she perceives as a possible alcohol problem. But is Dennis being truthful or does he have ulterior motives?
What We Think: Much like the title suggests this is a story that would’ve been good on paper. As a story told to her friends this works but turning it into a 90 min romcom was not the move. This movie doesn’t feature a script strong enough to support a good film. Shlesinger is working off of her own script and it’s just not good enough. She’s working her butt off and gives a decent performance but the schtick just isn’t all that impressive. I really like Margaret Cho in this. She brought some fun to the “funny best friend” trope. Which is an important trait of any romantic comedy. I can’t quite pinpoint it but something about Hansen’s performance felt cheap. Like it wasn’t worth the paper the script was printed on.
Our Grade: D+, I very much did not like this film. It doesn’t do anything it sets out to do correctly. Iliza did her best to try and make something happen but sadly this is another low-tier Netflix romantic comedy. It’s on Netflix so getting to the film isn’t difficult. No, instead getting through the film will prove to be the hardest part. It’s an easy skip for me.