Film Review: “Set It Up”
Netflix tries to revive the slowly dying romantic comedy
It’s the age of super-heros, comic book, and science-fiction films and high scale television shows. Entertainment speaking, it’s a great time to be alive. Studios are pumping story after story with the same formula that features the same explosions, same characters/actors (Star Wars I’m looking at you), with incredbibly similar origin stories. But they’re all entertaining films. They’re all fun. But if there is a genre that’s hurting from this big-budget-tentpole age, it’s the romantic comedies.
In the past ten years, as super-hero and action movies increased, romantic comedies (and feel-good movies) have had a dramatic decrease. In the early 2000s, romantic comedies were the go-to genre of the country. They were short (around 90 minutes) and simple movies that had cheesy dialogue, (hopefully) good chemistry between the leads, and really really cute moments. They’re perfect movies to watch with your friends on a weeknight with pizza and wine. Now, Netflix is trying to save the romantic comedy with thier latest original film “Set It Up”.
The concept for “Set It Up” is nothing you haven’t seen before. Harper (Zoey Deutch) and Charlie (Glen Powell) are both assistances to horrible bosses (Lucy Liu and Taye Diggs) in the same building in New York City. They make ridiculous demands, have Harper and Charlie wait on them hand and foot, and are always the last people to leave their building (after 12pm). In result to their job, Harper and Charlie have no social life and are watching their peers pass them professionally and personally so they come up with a plan to alleviate the stress, to set their bosses up.
The actual act of setting their bosses up is actually quite easy for Harper and Charlie. I mean, their assistance and know everyting about their respective boss and control their schedule. So Harper and Charlie quickly get them alone in the same area and set up ‘coincidences’ and they begin to form a relationship. This opens Harper and Charlie’s schedule where Harper can now focus on writing her article, as she hopes to become a sports journalist, and Charlie can spend time with this model girlfirend. The more they set their bosses up the more time Charlie and Harper spend together and get to know each other, and another romance starts to build. Director Claire Scanlon checks off every box on the Romantic Comedy Checklist but yet, something is missing.
The acting is fine (it’s not amaing , it’s not bad. It does the job). Deutch and Powell are great leads that nail their jokes, convey their awkwardness and anxiety in setting up their bosses while also being likable and able to root for. You can tell that they are exhausted by their job but also aspire to be like their boss. You like both characters and root for like and kindof want them to get together. But the two don’t have much chemistry or don’t have enough time to convey that chemisty in the scenes they were given. Majority of their scenes are about their bosses and the reminding scenes (one or two) jumped into them falling in love which isn’t believable. If there were just two more moments or scenes that build the relationship it would have worked perfectly. But Scanlon didn’t give them enough material to work with.
Liu and Diggs do a good job as well. For me, Diggs conveyed that he was a horrible, strict, high maintenance individual as opposed to Liu. In my opinion, Liu played her character as an uptight, type-A, independent woman, but not a mean woman (she is no Devil Wears Prada here folks). Scanlon also made the choice to never show Liu and Diggs’ relationship so the audience relies on Harper and Charlie’s conversations to understand and learn the status of their relationship. The result is that the audience dosen’t care about the boss’ relationship. Since the audience never sees them build a relationship, what’s the point of rooting for them in the first place?
With a running time of an hour and 45 minutes the film is too long, espcially for a romantic comedy (average around 90 minutes long). What’s annoying about the runtime is that this movie could have also shaved off ten to fifteen minutes due to an unnecessary plot point at the end of the movie. The plot point doesn’t fit within the film at all and instead of making the movie more exciting and raising the steaks, it bores the audience.
This is by far not a perfect film but it isn’t a bad one either. I enjoyed this film far more than I should have by the mere fact that it takes place in New York City. Scanlon features beautiful shots of the New York skylight (during both night and day), several parks, Yankee Stadium, rooftop parties, and typical Manhattan streets filled with the many faces of New Yorkers. If you’re interested in visiting this beautiful city, this film will sell you on it. You truly feel the tempertment and speed of New York life through this film and that is a rare and beautiful skill that Scanlon has as a director that shouldn’t be overlooked.
If this film was released in movie theaters across the country, it probably wouldn’t make over $15 million. But lucky for the film it was released on Netflix where it is going to be seen by a lot more people and hpefully result in future deals for the actors and creative team. Does “Set It Up” revive the romantic comedy? No. It’s a mediocre film that has it’s issues. But there’s jokes, cute moments, and relatable ones as well. The audience understands the stress of being in your mid-20s, alone, and afraid of what to do next, desperately searching for some free time to reconnect with your friends and yourself. This film doesn’t save the genre by any means, but “Set It Up” tells us that the romantic comedy isn’t going away anytime soon.
