Celeste and Jesse Forever

Celeste and Jesse Forever

Co-starring and co-written by Rashida Jones, this film finally gives us a taste of what she's capable of as a creative human. It's also a chance to see Andy Samberg as a romantic lead, forcing him to play a much more grounded character than he's ever had to before.

A somewhat bizarre setup for a rom-com, Celeste and Jesse are a recently separated married couple who are still very close friends. This upsets their other friends and they don't really understand why. They try to date other people but it's difficult, and that's kinda the rest of the movie.

It captures a feeling of aimlessness that most other rom-coms shy away from, preferring to show characters meandering and being frustrated with their predicaments as opposed to being shot forward in a formulaic trajectory. This is what I'd consider to be the film's greatest strength, refusing to shy away from the loneliness and confusion that often takes place in the being-single world.

While there are some funny bits between Jones and Samberg, as well as some moderately bizarre characters, for the most part the film rides the not-too-funny-but-not-too-serious line, perhaps trying to invoke the tone of Freaks and Geeks but feeling a bit more like Netflix's Love, which I watched all of and am still not sure how I feel about, much like this film. Freaks and Geek's dramedy tone works because the humor actually is laugh-out-loud funny while the drama is truly emotionally effective, whereas something like Love, or this film, is so in the middle on everything that the tone is somewhat difficult to pick out.

It's never too boring or predictable but it's also not terribly exciting or engaging. Almost every aspect of the film lands right in the middle of the quality spectrum. The writing is fine, the acting is solid, the cinematography is there, it's all good enough as opposed to great.

If you're a rom-com fan but you wanna find something that breaks the traditional mold then I'd recommend this film for its little flips on the formula, which is what makes the film unique and gives it a special spot in that genre, even if I didn't end up being that impressed.