by Robert Bouffard, Editor
Dave Franco has been a solid, recognizable comedic actor for over a decade now, but in the last couple of years, he seems to have switched his focus to writing and directing. First, in 2020, Franco became the latest to jump on the comedy-actor-turned-horror-director pipeline with The Rental, though it’s not quite as good as A Quiet Place, let alone Get Out. The Rental shows good horror/thriller instincts, and I almost wish Franco would have followed up on that, instead of going the direction he did for his second directorial feature, Somebody I Used to Know.
This time around, Franco has made a romantic comedy, but in a fairly loose sense of the term. Ally (played by Franco’s wife and frequent collaborator Alison Brie) is the show runner of a baking show, but when it gets unceremoniously cancelled, she takes a trip back to her small hometown where people are more inclined to stay for their entire lives than they are to head off to Hollywood like she did. While there, she runs into her ex-boyfriend Sean (Jay Ellis), with whom she broke up a decade earlier because of her big dreams. It’s not quite a meet cute, since they already know each other well, but their encounter stirs up some old feelings for Ally. But when she finds out that Sean is actually engaged, and that the wedding is that weekend, a wrench is thrown into her plans to rebound from her cancellation with an ex.
I say this is a fairly loose romcom because there’s really only one person who wants there to be any romance, and that’s Ally. Really, it’s more like a coming-of-age tale for someone in their 40s. But even on that level, Somebody I Used to Know stumbles a bit. Franco tries to set up an eclectic cast of odd yet charming characters in this small town, but most of the humor he attempts to bring out falls flat. Haley Joel Osment plays Sean’s adoptive brother Jeremy, who has a unique brand of free-spirited self-loathing, and there are a smattering of good moments mined from his one-liners and mannerisms, but apart from that, the audience is kind of hung out to dry.
Brie’s longtime Community co-star Danny Pudi plays Ally’s old friend, but he oddly feels like he’s trying to hard to be quirky and smooth. Apart from him, we have Ayden Mayeri, Olga Merediz, Ted Rooney, and Kiersey Clemons (who plays Sean’s new fiancée Cassidy), all of whom do the best they can with what they’re given, but Franco’s (and co-writer Brie) writing sells them short. The best the writers can do is to be shocking, apparently, given how many times Ally walks in on her mother and boyfriend making love.
This is all coming from a good place with ideas worth exploring (especially, surprisingly, the naked mother), but the filmmaking doesn’t do that good place any favors. It’s actually quite shocking how little cinematic personality this movie has, considering how Franco so effectively creates an atmosphere through the cinematography and sound design in The Rental. Here, moving to a genre that isn’t known for its filmic flourishes unfortunately hamstrings him.
Somebody I Used to Know has a solid message about avoiding single-mindedness and embracing the possibilities of life, but it’s delivered in a mostly bland manner. The Rental is good filmmaking, but missing a message, and Somebody I Used to Know is boring filmmaking with a good message. If we could flip that around, Franco would have a very good movie and a fairly unsuccessful movie under his belt. Instead, he has two movies that are straight down the middle in terms of their quality. You’re not missing much if you don’t watch it, but you’ll also have a good enough, turn-your-brain-off time if you do. With Now You See Me 3 coming up, I suspect I’ll be looking forward to more of Franco’s appearances in front of the camera, instead of behind it.
Score: 5/10
Somebody I Used to Know is currently streaming on Amazon Prime Video
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