In a recent review, I was mentioning the fact that most romantic comedies go straight to a streaming platform these days, with only a few exceptions. I Want You Back is yet another one of them, but sadly, I don't hear many people talking about this one. With so many options to watch right now, I have a feeling this one will be forgotten about, but it shouldn't. Does it have a lot of overused tropes? Yes, but the nature of how they're presented felt fresh. Here's why, at the very least, I think it's worth checking out when you don't know what to watch.
Peter (Charlie Day) and Emma (Jenny Slate) are both newly single.
Neither of them did the breaking up part and neither of them is over their exes. After meeting each other and bonding over their similar situation, they become friends and attempt to ruin new relationships that their exes now have. I'm sure you can guess where the story goes and you'd probably be right, but it's the journey that got to that point that I enjoyed. It never felt like a cheesy rom-com, but the ending was overly cheesy and I think it was intentional.
Charlie Day is hilarious as always and gives a deeper performance than I'm used to seeing from him, so that alone sold me. Jenny Slate has also nearly always impressed me with her performances and I think this might be her best yet. On top of that, the supporting cast of their exes in Scott Eastwood and Gina Rodriguez both added a layer of silliness to the movie that I thought was great. For being as streamlined of a movie as it is, I was still entertained from start to finish. I would also like to shout out Manny Jacinto, whom I've only ever seen in the series The Good Place. His presence in this film had me laughing on multiple occasions. Great job!
Overall, I Want You Back is about as basic as you can get with a storyline like this, but it's elevated by some fun surprises in the script from writers Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger. The cast works very well together and I believe director Jason Orley has a bright future in feature film directing. This was the biggest film he has done to date and I think it truly did showcase some "actors directing" talent on-screen. I walked away from this film basically nodding my head in agreement as I knew how it was going to end, but I just have to admit that I still like what they did. I Want You Back is nothing you haven't seen before, but it's still worth watching.
Peter (Charlie Day) and Emma (Jenny Slate) are both newly single.
Neither of them did the breaking up part and neither of them is over their exes. After meeting each other and bonding over their similar situation, they become friends and attempt to ruin new relationships that their exes now have. I'm sure you can guess where the story goes and you'd probably be right, but it's the journey that got to that point that I enjoyed. It never felt like a cheesy rom-com, but the ending was overly cheesy and I think it was intentional.
Charlie Day is hilarious as always and gives a deeper performance than I'm used to seeing from him, so that alone sold me. Jenny Slate has also nearly always impressed me with her performances and I think this might be her best yet. On top of that, the supporting cast of their exes in Scott Eastwood and Gina Rodriguez both added a layer of silliness to the movie that I thought was great. For being as streamlined of a movie as it is, I was still entertained from start to finish. I would also like to shout out Manny Jacinto, whom I've only ever seen in the series The Good Place. His presence in this film had me laughing on multiple occasions. Great job!
Overall, I Want You Back is about as basic as you can get with a storyline like this, but it's elevated by some fun surprises in the script from writers Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger. The cast works very well together and I believe director Jason Orley has a bright future in feature film directing. This was the biggest film he has done to date and I think it truly did showcase some "actors directing" talent on-screen. I walked away from this film basically nodding my head in agreement as I knew how it was going to end, but I just have to admit that I still like what they did. I Want You Back is nothing you haven't seen before, but it's still worth watching.