movie review always be my maybe

Always Be My Maybe

Sometimes, the great love you’re meant to end up with (in other words, the one ) is right in front you. At least according to the age-old happily-ever-after premise of countless romantic comedies including “When Harry Met Sally,” in which two longtime friends fall to bed and become lovers—first awkwardly, then passionately. Nahnatchka Khan ’s “Always Be My Maybe,” an eager-to-please yet unsatisfying genre dish, follows a similar formula with all the correct on-paper ingredients: a pair of likable leads, quirky sidekicks, eye-catching locations and through a brief role hilariously played by Keanu Reeves , even some major movie star appeal. It is then unfortunate that this tempting package by Khan, a creative and producing force behind ABC’s “Fresh off the Boat,” is so bland, feeling less like a movie and more like the output of an assembly line.

The bulk of the liability can be attributed to the writing, with responsibilities shared across Michael Golamco , Randall Park and Ali Wong —the latter two artists, real-life friends and like Khan, well-affiliated with “Fresh Off The Boat,” also play the co-leads. Recycling a tried-and-true recipe with a contemporary spin is certainly not a wrongdoing in itself—from haunted house movies to time travel flicks, various genres continuously source brand-new thrills and joys from familiar premises. But somewhere along the way here, the screenwriting trio foregoes building plausible dramatic turns, and instead, delivers something that dutifully ticks expected boxes. While they feel like the right boxes for the most part, “Always Be My Maybe” doesn’t ultimately offer sturdy emotional stakes to hold the film (and our attention) together. The plainly bright, sitcom-like cinematography, which lacks a visual identity throughout, doesn’t help matters, either.

And yet it all starts encouragingly enough, at a time when young Sasha Tran and Marcus Kim (with their adult selves played by Wong and Park respectively) are next-door neighbors in San Francisco. Often neglected by her parents who work long hours, Sasha seems accustomed to preparing her own dinners—she can make even a can of spam look fancy—and learning the intricate details of Korean cuisine from Marcus’ sweet, sacrificing mom. With Sasha spending most of her time with Marcus’ family, the two kids grow up as friends, somehow lose their virginity to each other as teens and upon the passing of Marcus’ mother, have an awkward falling out in their formative years.

Cut to 15 years later, and Sasha is now among America’s hottest celebrity chefs in Los Angeles, engaged to the equally successful restaurateur Brandon Choi ( Daniel Dae Kim ). But her nuptial bliss gets delayed, when she heads back to San Francisco to open a new restaurant and Brandon, on his way to India for a new business venture, proposes to postpone the wedding and have an open relationship along the way. You guessed it right. This is when Marcus—in A/C business with his father and still driving the same car—re-enters the picture, albeit with a quirky, comic relief of a girlfriend (the thankless part is spiritedly played by performance artist Vivian Bang ). The two old friends re-connect, open up old wounds, fight, bicker, bond and ultimately, unite around their love for one another, lifting each other up professionally. Always wary about growth, Marcus finally finds the courage to step up his game as a musician. Thus far into fancy culinary trends—words like non-denominational and elevated are thrown around to describe food — Sasha remembers her roots and what made her love cooking in the first place.

These developments would certainly have felt more moving, if the duo’s break up were stemming from reasons more memorable or consequential. And … if only we could see Sasha at work more; even just once! But while Wong walks around with the earned attitude of someone deservingly successful at her job, “Always Be My Maybe” forgets to grant her adequate scenes where she gets to perform her craft to make her character plausible. The film poignantly engages with the Korean-American experience from familial, societal and professional angles and hits upon sweet, sharp-eyed insights in that regard. But its other ambitions—like critiquing gentrification—fall flat, with jokes around “kale” and “rich people in t-shirts” feeling immediately stale.

Wong and Park have lovely chemistry (more as friends than lovers), with Wong especially delivering a feisty performance while sporting Leesa Evans ’ terrific costumes. But as tentative as its title, “Always Be My Maybe” feels very much like the fancy tasting menu Marcus complains about in one scene. It awakens a craving, but leaves you starving for something a lot more substantial. 

Tomris Laffly

Tomris Laffly is a freelance film writer and critic based in New York. A member of the New York Film Critics Circle (NYFCC), she regularly contributes to  RogerEbert.com , Variety and Time Out New York, with bylines in Filmmaker Magazine, Film Journal International, Vulture, The Playlist and The Wrap, among other outlets.

• Jackson Geach as Young Marcus
• James Saito as Harry
• Miya Cech as Younger Sasha
• Ashley Liao as Young Sasha
• Michelle Buteau as Veronica
• Ali Wong as Sasha
• Randall Park as Marcus
• Anaiyah Bernier as Young Veronica
• Michael Golamco
• Randall Park
• Nahnatchka Khan

Cinematographer

• Tim Suhrstedt

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‘Always Be My Maybe’ Review: Romance, Food and Fame Through a Sitcom Lens

Ali Wong and Randall Park struggle to find chemistry in this romantic comedy with an appealingly diverse cast.

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By Jeannette Catsoulis

“Always Be My Maybe” feels a lot like a movie propped up by a stunt, a high-gloss romantic comedy so mired in triteness and unconvincing emotions that its main recommendation is the appealing diversity of its cast .

That stunt is a wonderfully self-deprecating appearance by Keanu Reeves, but we’ll get to him in a moment. The early scenes, set in San Francisco in the 1990s, have a charming ease as young Sasha (Miya Cech), a lonely only child, finds solace at the home of her friend and neighbor, Marcus (Emerson Min). The enticing Korean meals cooked by Marcus’s mother (Susan Park) are especially consoling, so it’s no surprise to find the adult Sasha (the dauntingly confident Ali Wong) swanning around Los Angeles as a glitzy celebrity chef.

One-pot comfort food, though, has been replaced by elaborate plates of Instagrammable art, which is how we know that Sasha has lost touch with her roots. The movie is rife with this kind of shorthand, sketching characters’ flaws and attributes in broad sitcom strokes: Sasha’s faithless and short-lived fiancé, a restaurateur who practices capoeira, gives Daniel Dae Kim little to play but an empty suit. Even so, he’s a more credible partner for Sasha than Marcus (a bashful Randall Park), who might look like an adult but hasn’t yet figured out how to behave like one.

[ Ali Wong and Randall Park on why they made the movie.]

When they reunite, he’s a grumpy, ambitionless air-conditioning technician and the frontman for an ear-shreddingly awful band, still driving the car he lost his virginity in 15 years earlier. Once again, we have a smart, successful woman hooking up with a weed-smoking low achiever, albeit one who bucks formula somewhat by failing to drag her down to his level. (It’s hard to imagine anyone played by Wong, who first drew attention for her outrageously funny 2016 special “Baby Cobra,” being dragged anywhere she doesn’t want to go.) Small consolation in a movie littered with Spanx jokes, money-focused Asian stereotypes and embarrassingly humorless setups. One particularly wince-worthy scene has Marcus ruin his band’s crucial audition by drunkenly relieving himself on an amplifier.

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Film Review: Netflix’s ‘Always Be My Maybe’

Netflix’s romantic comedy about two estranged best friends rekindling an old flame blends comedy, culture, and commentary in a shrewd package.

By Courtney Howard

Courtney Howard

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Society, and relentless commercial campaigns, constantly bombard women with messages about matrimony: Score a big, sparkly diamond. Obsess over a fancy white dress. And definitely marry your best friend. That latter cliché has been espoused by countless Hollywood comedies, from “My Best Friend’s Wedding” to “Made of Honor,” where one party resorts to outlandish shenanigans to win over the more reluctant party. Refreshingly, director Nahnatchka Khan ’s “Always Be My Maybe” presents a less lopsided — and by extension, more natural — situation in which two estranged childhood friends attempt to reignite their teen romance. The positive influence of “When Harry Met Sally” is noticeable in the undercurrents, but Netflix’s modern-minded romantic comedy has its own unique identity, savoring aspects of Asian-American culture and treating both protagonists as equal partners.

Sasha Tran (Miya Chech) and Marcus Kim (Emerson Min) become childhood best friends in San Francisco, forming a connection over their love of food and family — specifically Marcus’. Latchkey kid Sasha spends most of her free time in Marcus’ home, cooking with his mom Judy (Susan Park) and bonding with his father Harry (James Saito). As teens, the duo continue to spend time together, taking cable car rides through the city, making cheesy mementos and fishing off the pier. But when Marcus’ mother suddenly dies, and the pair (now played by Ali Wong and Randall Park ) give in to their urges in the back seat of his smelly, beat-up Corolla, their amorous feelings quickly turn awkward. It causes a rift in their relationship — one that can only be mended by time spent apart.

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Years later, Sasha is now a celebrity chef who has parlayed her love of cuisine into a million-dollar company, running a Vietnamese fusion restaurant in Los Angeles. Her romantic life is less than successful, as her narcissistic restaurateur fiancé Brandon Choi (Daniel Dae Kim) breaks off their engagement on the precipice of her move to San Francisco. Heartbroken and ready to heal, Sasha returns to her hometown where, thanks to some meddling by her pregnant friend and business partner Veronica (Michelle Buteau, who elevates rubbing her belly into an art form), she reunites with Marcus. He’s caught in a state of arrested development, still living at home and working for his dad. His lack of confidence and fear of success have also put self-imposed limits on his musical ambitions, relegating him to playing a dive bar with his high school band. At first reluctant to reconnect, the pair soon rediscover their groove.

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For a genre encumbered with unrealistic notions of romance and how to attain it, Khan’s feature feels wildly progressive in many ways. It never pits women against each other, fighting over the affections of a man, nor does it require either protagonist to sacrifice themselves for the other’s happiness. Both Marcus, who needs to break out of his comfort zone, and Sasha, who needs to remember what home means, are forced to do the necessary change to meet one another’s best selves in the middle.

The screenplay, co-written by Wong, Park and Michael Golamco, highlights different facets of comedy, from the physicality of getting busy in a tiny back seat (as Garfield and Odie figurines watch from the dashboard), to the broad outrageousness of a situation involving Marcus’ dreadlocked, free-spirited girlfriend Jenny (Vivian Bang) and a repulsive home-cooked meal. There’s even observational humor about the city’s rampant handicap placard abuse, and culturally specific, self-reflexive jokes about tip avoidance and the benefits of speaking Cantonese to dumpling house waitresses (as Marcus exclaims, “Free shumai!”).

Perhaps the best sequences are multi-purpose. They’re both funny and genuine, add a bubbly buoyancy through deft wit and charm, and tweak genre conventions. Keanu Reeves’ appearance in a pretentious gastronomy restaurant provides a solid set piece to ramp up the sex appeal, supply a provocative antagonist and deliver some hilarious one-liners, all while lampooning foodie culture. The unavoidable “chase to get the girl,” followed by the “grand gesture at a public event,” dovetail nicely into a surprise second grand gesture — one that might summon a few tears.

The material shifts in tone from humorous to poignant, and back again, fairly seamlessly. While Park and Wong, two actors known primarily for their work in comedy, are totally in their wheelhouse with the brisk and brainy banter, it’s their ease at leaning into their characters’ vulnerabilities that’s noteworthy. Park earns his leading-man status here with endearing sweetness and accessibility. Wong’s performance feels real and resonant. Peeking out from underneath her designer cat-eye glasses are intelligence, grace and beauty that rival any romantic comedy queen.

Reviewed at Rodeo Screening Room, Los Angeles, May 28, 2019. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: ­­­­­101 MIN.

• Production: A Netflix release of a Good Universe Production. Producers: Nathan Kahane, Erin Westerman, Randall Park, Ali Wong. Executive producers: Brendan Ferguson, John Powers Middleton.
• Crew: Director: Nahnatchka Khan. Screenplay: Ali Wong, Randall Park, Michael Golamco. Camera (color, widescreen): Tim Suhrstedt. Editors: Lee Haxall. Music: Michael Andrews, Greyboy.
• With: Ali Wong, Randall Park, Michelle Buteau, Vivian Bang, Daniel Dae Kim, Susan Park, James Saito, Keanu Reeves.

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Always Be My Maybe Reviews

“Always Be My Maybe” is a barrier-breaking film centered around an Asian American couple. It's entertaining from start to finish and is one of the better romantic comedies we’ve seen in recent years.

Full Review | Jul 20, 2023

If you’re hungry for anything deeper or more original you’re probably not going to leave satisfied.

Full Review | Original Score: 2.5/5 | Aug 19, 2022

It was a joy to see this side of Keanu, and I hope we get to see more of it in future films.

Full Review | Original Score: 8.5/10 | Jul 30, 2021

Ali Wong and Randall Park killed it along with the rest of the cast. Everything came together on this one.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | May 28, 2021

This is one of my favorite romantic comedies in recent memory. Loved everything about it.

Full Review | Original Score: 5/5 | May 28, 2021

The film's funny, contemporary, and uniquely tender take on the friends-to-lovers formula is further bolstered by its cultural specificity.

Full Review | Mar 15, 2021

Ali Wong and Randall Park fit together like two pieces in a puzzle with an authentic friendship and chemistry you need to have a story like this work.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.0/4.0 | Nov 20, 2020

The film works as a funny, heartfelt reinvigoration of the "friend zone" trope present within the rather repetitive genre.

Full Review | Sep 25, 2020

This is a love story, plain and simple, a journey that is universal to all cultures. Stream it now. The title might be "Always Be My Maybe," but you should see it most definitely.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Jul 24, 2020

...everything about this film makes it a charming rom-com that we can watch repeatedly.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Jul 17, 2020

A consistently hilarious and heartfelt story, starring two actors who make the central relationship feel plausible and emotional. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 17, 2020

...a noble idea, but nothing close to the near-philosophical musings on life, loss, belonging and contentment is found here.

Full Review | Original Score: C+ | Jan 8, 2020

Balancing unconventionality with familiarity, this Netflix gem is the latest step in the Asian-American movement in Hollywood.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Nov 6, 2019

I thoroughly enjoyed this perfectly lovely little romantic comedy.

Full Review | Oct 1, 2019

The brainchild of comedian Ali Wong, the film is sharp, fresh, funny and sweetly self-assured.

Full Review | Sep 25, 2019

[An] auspicious entry. [Full review in Spanish]

Full Review | Aug 26, 2019

Always Be My Maybe' on Netflix, a simply perfect romantic comedy and a laughter-filled punch in the jaw - by a new boyfriend playing the perfect cameo that is ...

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Aug 22, 2019

Always Be My Maybe is the kind of romantic comedy we need, with relatable characters and the understanding that characterization guides the narrative, not the other way around.

Full Review | Original Score: 8/10 | Aug 17, 2019

A prickly, hilarious movie that puts plenty of comedy back into the tired old romantic comedy genre.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Aug 7, 2019

The catchy chemistry of the movie comes from the whip-smart writing and performances of the two leads.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Aug 5, 2019

• Cast & crew
• User reviews

Always Be My Maybe

Everyone assumed that Sasha and Marcus would wind up together, except for Sasha and Marcus. Reconnecting after 15 years, the two start to wonder--maybe? Everyone assumed that Sasha and Marcus would wind up together, except for Sasha and Marcus. Reconnecting after 15 years, the two start to wonder--maybe? Everyone assumed that Sasha and Marcus would wind up together, except for Sasha and Marcus. Reconnecting after 15 years, the two start to wonder--maybe?

• Nahnatchka Khan
• Randall Park
• Michael Golamco
• James Saito
• 413 User reviews
• 81 Critic reviews
• 64 Metascore
• 1 win & 5 nominations

Top cast 99+

• Keanu Reeves

• 12 Year Old Sasha

• 12 Year Old Marcus

• All cast & crew
• Production, box office & more at IMDbPro

'Always Be My Maybe' Stars Are Rom-Coms Experts

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Did you know

• Trivia Ali Wong and Randall Park said that Keanu Reeves was their first choice for the film. The script was sent to him, but Wong and Park never thought they would get him. However, Reeves had watched Wong's Netflix special Ali Wong: Baby Cobra (2016) and said yes. Wong said he wrote "I would be honored to be part of your love story." Park said that Reeves was quoting lines from Wong's special.
• Goofs Sasha has braces on her top teeth in some cuts and not others when in the car with Marcus.

Fast Food Cashier : Welcome to Burger King. Flame grilling since 1954. Can I interest you in a Whopper? You can get it to go if you wanna eat it in your car and cry.

• Connections Featured in Nostalgia Critic: Constantine (2019)
• Soundtracks 93 Til Infinity Written by Bill Cobham (as Billy Cobham), A-Plus (as Adam Carter), Opio (as Opio Lindsey), Tajai Massey , and Damani Thompson Performed by Souls of Mischief Courtesy of RCA Records By arrangement with Sony Music Entertainment Contains sample of "Heather" Performed by Bill Cobham (as Billy Cobham) Courtesy of Atlantic Recording Corp. By arrangement with Warner Music Group Film & TV Licensing

User reviews 413

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• Feb 9, 2020
• How long is Always Be My Maybe? Powered by Alexa
• May 31, 2019 (United States)
• United States
• Official Netflix
• Mãi Là Người Thương
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• Runtime 1 hour 41 minutes
• Dolby Digital

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Ali Wong and Randall Park stumble and shine in frothy rom-com Always Be My Maybe:  EW review

With all due respect to heavyweight Oscar bait like Roma , Netflix seems to have found its true purpose in original movie programming over the past year: clever, endlessly meme-able rom-coms meant to be watched on the floor in your weird pajamas.

Set It Up , Someone Great , To All the Boys I've Loved Before : these (and anything Sandra Bullock can put a bird or a blindfold on ) are what most subscribers come home to Postmates and a warm laptop for. Always Be My Maybe lands somewhere in the elder-millennial sweet spot of that continuum — and at the same time, joins a burgeoning if still too-small club of mainstream movies centered without any special pomp or circumstance on Asian-American characters.

Ali Wong (who first blew up on Netflix, fittingly, with her wildly popular 2016 standup special Baby Cobra ) stars as Sasha, and Fresh Off the Boat' s Randall Park is Marcus; best friends since they were elementary-school neighbors in San Francisco, the pair stumbles in a teenage transition to romance, and loses touch for over a decade. By then she's a successful chef in L.A. with an expanding restaurant empire and a fiancé (Daniel Dae Kim) straight out of a mail-order catalog for silver foxes; he's a stoner who still lives at home with his dad and plays dive bars with his high school band.

When Sasha comes back to the Bay Area to launch a new outpost of her Asian fusion cuisine, they reunite inevitably and — at least at first — unenthusiastically. Anyone with a well-creased rom-com road map knows where all this is headed, but in the meantime we have a smorgasbord of eccentric friends, lovers, and exes to meet (including Michelle Buteau as Sasha's wry, heavily pregnant manager, and Vivian Bang as the dreadlocked bohemian hanging off Marcus' neck like a medicated koala).

The stuff of a thousand future Twitter gifs, though, is a featured appearance by Keanu Reeves. It's better not to know too much about his role going in, other than that nearly everything about it has the winking air quotes of a movie star playing directly to his own storied Hollywood history, and that it is for the most part ridiculously fun.

That, and the weaponized charm of the two leads, keep the hastily assembled paper plane of a plot afloat, if not exactly flying straight for its 100-minute runtime. Director Nahnatcha Khan comes largely from television ( Fresh off the Boat , Don't Trust the B— in Apartment 23 ), and there's a small-screen feel to her set pieces, as well as a tendency to let sitcom-level gags go on too long.

To be fair, though, a small screen is exactly what the movie's audience will be sitting in front of, in whichever pants they want (or no pants at all) — happily watching Wong and Park stumble their way toward Maybe -dom. B

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Love Finds Ali Wong And Randall Park In 'Always Be My Maybe'

Linda Holmes

Randall Park and Ali Wong star in Netflix's Always Be My Maybe. Ed Araquel/Netflix hide caption

Randall Park and Ali Wong star in Netflix's Always Be My Maybe.

Oh, hello, it's a romantic comedy!

Always Be My Maybe is an enormously refreshing rom-com in a couple of ways that people who have covered its release have talked about a lot. Specifically, it's an American rom-com (released on Netflix) that features two Asian American characters from two Asian American families who have sex, fall in love, break up, date other people and then find each other again. It stars Randall Park, who has spent the last several years on ABC's Fresh Off the Boat but has had a long and varied career in comedy, and Ali Wong, whose career boomed after the release of her comedy specials Baby Cobra and then Hard Knock Wife . Park and Wong have known each other a long time, and they have eager fan excitement to thank (at least in part) for the fact that they decided to actually go ahead with the project.

As romantic comedies have contracted after their post-'90s boom, those featuring leads of color have been, regrettably but predictably, hit especially hard. And while Crazy Rich Asians in 2018 brought welcome representation for Asian American actors in both romance and comedy, it was not really quite a romantic comedy in the traditional sense.

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This is one. Straight-up, down-the-middle, glorious romantic comedy for people who really and truly love and miss that kind of movie — and the fact that both leads are Asian American isn't the only way in which it's fresh faced. It's also noteworthy that Park is 45 and Wong is 37, making them significantly older than rom-com leads often are. (When Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan appeared in When Harry Met Sally..., also a long-relationship film and the one Wong and Park have often cited as inspiration, Crystal was just over 40 and Ryan was in her late 20s.)

The two play Marcus and Sasha, who become best pals as kids in San Francisco. They share one awkward sexual experience and then go their separate ways. Years later, when he's still working with his father and she's a celebrity chef, they meet up again. But he has a new and unusual girlfriend (a very funny Vivian Bang), and she's dating a fancypants rich guy played by the always welcome Daniel Dae Kim.

I love what Wong is doing here with the idea of the very driven and successful romantic comedy heroine. Sasha is unapologetic about being ambitious, with the only conflict about her work coming from what feel like very fresh conversations with Marcus about whom she's trying to please with her particular take on "Asian food." There's no sense that she needs to give up her job, and it's clear that she's probably going to remain famous while he remains not famous, no matter what else happens. Marcus is in a band, but while it would be easy to wrap this up by making his band a big hit, it would ... not be particularly believable. (His band is called Hello Peril, which is just a great, great joke .)

Sasha's best friend, Veronica (Michelle Buteau, because the great comedy people just keep on coming), is super-pregnant for most of the film (perhaps significantly, the same way Wong was when she shot both her comedy specials), and she's spared just about every bad best-friend cliché. In fact, Veronica's pregnancy almost operates like a subtle assurance that although she loves her friend, this love story is not the most important thing going on in her life at the moment.

Park, too, is just marvelously appealing, supportive and still sometimes kind of foolish in the way you have to be for a rom-com not to end until it's time for it to end. His dad is played by the marvelous James Saito, and the two of them have an easy and funny chemistry. Both Marcus' and Sasha's parents certainly have some culturally specific touchstones, but it's embarrassing how unusual it is to see Asian American characters with parents firmly outside any super-driven or super-silly stereotypes. (This was also a marvelous aspect of Hulu's coming-of-age series PEN15 and its portrayal of Maya's mom.)

We have to talk about Keanu Reeves, though, because Keanu Reeves is in the marketing.

One of the tricks with a film like this is that the middle often drags. After you get through the first part, in which you meet the characters and set up their lives and their love story (SPOILER ALERT), and before you get to the end, as they begin to approach a happy ending (SPOILER ALERT!!), there's a section in the middle where it can feel like you're just ... waiting. You're waiting for the people to figure out that they love each other or that their current partners are wrong for them. You're waiting for obstacles to clear. And that section often needs something. The people who made Always Be My Maybe very wisely concluded that what it needed was Keanu Reeves.

Without saying too much about his role, let's say that Reeves here is riffing on what you might call the Keanu Reeves Cultural Ideal — this notion that he's a fighter and a poet and a paragon of decency who probably meditates in the shower. And of all the times I've seen an actor goof around with his own image, this just might be my very favorite — even above the Neil Patrick Harris appearance in Harold & Kumar Go to White Castle . Reeves is a tremendously good sport and a fabulous comic actor, and every tiny decision he makes in these scenes is exactly right. It would be unfair to say he steals the film, because he doesn't. But what you can say is that his appearance helps enormously in kicking the middle of the film in the pants to keep it from sagging.

It's a film that delivers on all its promises, gives a lot of funny people a chance to shine and — yes indeed — provides some much-needed representation to a lot of potential love-story leads who don't see themselves in Hollywood nearly often enough.

And let me add: If you don't stick around at least through the part of the credits with ... the surprise audio, you may be sad later. Because later, someone will show you what you missed, and you will say, "I should have listened to that NPR critic." Stay at least through the childhood photos. They're pretty fun anyway.