4/5 Stars
Gina Rodriguez is continually showing that women of color make great leading ladies, most recently displaying her stellar acting chops in Netflix’s latest rom-com written and directed by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson in her directorial debut, “Someone Great.”
The film centers on Jenny (Gina Rodriguez), a music journalist living in New York City who lands her dream job with Rolling Stone, but it means moving to San Francisco. The film opens right after her boyfriend of almost a decade, Nate (Lakeith Stanfield), breaks up with her, sending her into a post-breakup depression.
Hoping to get out of her funk and have one last great night in the city with her best friends Erin (DeWanda Wise) and Blair (Brittany Snow), Jenny ropes them into a day of drinking, doing drugs, and getting ready for a pop-up underground show from Neon Classic, a concert series they would often attend together.
Throughout the day, each woman is forced to face her problems. Jenny has to deal with her separation from Nate and her impending move away from the city and her friends, Erin’s commitment issues make her afraid to admit her feelings to her girlfriend Leah (Rebecca Naomi Jones) and Blair has to break up with her boyfriend whom she’s no longer into.
The day is complicated by the ordeal of securing tickets to the show. The women initially try to buy tickets from a wealthy quack, but eventually resort to asking Jenny’s ex-boyfriend Matt (Peter Vack), whose team is putting on the event, for help, revealing that he and Blair have a thing for each other.
The film has everything, from skeevy ex-boyfriends and present-to-past flashback sequences relating the rise and fall of Jenny and Nate to fabulous drug dealer Hype (RuPaul Charles). RuPaul as a drug dealer was perfection. The writing in this film is so, so good that I actually laughed. “I have early onset osteoporosis” will forever be my new excuse for not wearing heels when I don’t feel like it.
Unlike most sappy rom-coms, this film portrays loss, growing up and friendship in a far more realistic and relatable way. Jenny makes her friends skip work so that they’ll comfort her, even going as far as lying to Blair’s coworkers and pretending Blair’s aunt has died. While Blair is apprehensive, Erin is all for it. I think I speak accurately when I say we’ve all been there.
The film addresses the way people get settled into things and get so comfortable, they forget to keep moving, very well. If you just stand still in life, if you always do the same things and forget to seek out new experiences, then you won’t have any personal growth and you won’t be able to see new things or make exceptional memories.
In addition, I also enjoyed how the film addresses friendship. Erin and Blair spend the day taking care of Jenny because in that moment, she needs them, even though Blair is hesitant to revert back to her Slytherin ways. Both friends spend the evening trying to find Jenny when they get separated, and Jenny has no issue with Blair having had sex with Matt when she finds out because friends are more important than f*ckboys.
The film has an ultimate, meaningful message—beautiful things come to an end, but just because they’re ending and we’re heartbroken doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be happy they happened. Sometimes that pain becomes a lesson that helps you become a better version of yourself.
I enjoyed the film and have no qualms recommending it. Thank you, Netflix, for continuously bringing us strong female leads.
