ME, HIM, HER – The Review

Review by Stephen Tronicek

The recent work of Max Landis has taken quite an amount of tarring and feathering. American Ultra absolutely failed at the box-office, and failed to connect with critics, Victor Frankenstein fared worse, and Mr. Right doesn’t seem to be rising to the occasion as the reviews come in. But one film ultimately has taken the most hate, and that is his most recent release ME, HIM, HER.

That’s actually too bad because ME, HIM, HER seems to be the best tailored to Landis’s own “take a high concept idea, and then without any real direction take such idea and with as much energy possible run it into the ground,” style of scriptwriting and filmmaking. Many of its ideals are already shallow and even tired enough that only the madcap energy of Max Landis could save them, and he halfway does it. Not quite, but halfway.

There’s certainly effort, and passion here. The script by Landis feels slightly rushed, but is surprisingly open and funny about its topic of relationships. It seems like a work of early Askewniverse Kevin Smith, and it helps that Landis lifts half of ME, HIM, HER from Smith’s Askewniverse…not that it manages to be anywhere near as funny.

ME, HIM, HER focusses on Cory (Dustin Milligan), who is called by his friend Brendan (Luke Bracey) to come out to L.A. in an effort to help Brendan come out of the closet. The reason it’s so hard? Because Brendan is part of a cop show in which he is conventionally masculine, and he wants to be sensitive about coming out. Then there’s the section of the film’s plot that is lifted wholesale from Chasing Amy (the best of those types of movies) which has Cory falling in love with a lesbian named Gabbi (Emily Meade).

Luckily, none of this is really looked down on. If there’s one thing that ME, HIM, HER has going for it is that it understands that random stuff happens in relationships. It treats it’s lesbian storyline as just something that may just happen without making a huge deal about a lesbian falling in love with a guy. That’s where ME, HIM, HER actually has the leg up on Smith’s Amy (even if it’s the only place). While many independent filmmakers dealing with this material opt to make this type of romance a “big deal” Landis takes a more enlightened side to it. Sure, it doesn’t seem like all that much in a world where honesty about sexuality is such a normal thing and movies like Blue is the Warmest Color actually exist, but in circumstance of genre this seems pretty new. The whole “thin sitcom” comedy movie doesn’t usually try to have those kind of ideals. It’s also offers the best number of jokes that film has with a gutbuster following a scream off between the Cory and Gabbi in a park.

That said the actual main story of the film unfortunately doesn’t seem to take this route. Brendon’s coming out of the closet story does provide some laughs, but more guilty ones. This section of the story seems to lose all sense of relevancy in an age when gay marriage is legal in the United States. The film was made in 2013, so pass? Maybe. This could have made for a much better section of the film. There’s a sense of hilarity to be found in just how “old”  all of that plays, but there’s still a good number of punchlines that can be squeezed out of the concept, mainly including one that has Cory covering for Brendon at a gay pride parade.

Of all the actors Milligan fares the best, but the screenplay only lets him spew artsy one liners about L.A., and make somewhat cliched relationship talk. He’s also the only one of the three main characters that gets any dramatic depth, and Milligan equips himself well too it. Luke Bracey as Brendon isn’t really given anything to work with other than at the end where Bracey is finally able to be super energetic. He’s got movie star charisma if only the film would actually let him use it. Meade is also given much of the same scripting problems. Angela Sarafyan barley has a character here, but she overacts enough to make an impression. Not always a good one, but still quite an impression.

Overall the best thing that ME, HIM, HER has going for it is it’s open mindedness to it’s side story with Gabbi and Cory.  Other than that it feels like an older film (which it is) with one good thematic ideal to cling onto. The rest is a wash, but a mildly entertaining one. Respect for what Mr. Landis was going for here even if he didn’t quite get there.

2 1/2 of 5 Stars

ME, HIM, HER is currently available on several VOD platforms including Amazon and Google Play