Alison Brie plays an anti-hero (she's the problem, it's her) in "Somebody I Used to Know," a thorny romantic comedy about moving on, falling apart and letting go, sometimes not in that order.
Brie is Ally, a reality TV producer in Los Angeles who is barely scraping by — her trash-tastic reality series "Dessert Island" has just been canceled after three seasons — but to her friends in family back in Leavenworth, Washington, she's the hometown girl made good.
When she returns home ostensibly to visit her mom but really to get away from it all, she runs into her ex-boyfriend Sean (Jay Ellis) at a bar. They hit it off and have a magical day and night together, talking until the wee hours. But there's palpable awkwardness the next morning, and when Ally drops by Sean's family home to see what's up, she finds out why: Sean is about to get married.
His fiance is Cassidy (Kiersey Clemons), who plays in a punk rock band. But is there something still there worth exploring between Ally and Sean? Ally decides to find out and inserts herself into the weekend's activities, despite the pleas of Sean's brother, Benny (Danny Pudi, in a welcome "Community" reunion with Brie). And the more trouble she causes, the more she can't help herself, despite the very real consequences to those around her.
Brie is very much playing an unlikeable protagonist in the vein of Julia Roberts in "My Best Friend's Wedding," and the movie — written by Brie and her husband, Dave Franco, and directed by Franco — has the good sense to mint the comparison by calling it out in the movie.
But she's not playing a caricature or a cartoon villain. She's a little bit lost and a little bit hurt and a lot bit selfish, and she's figuring things out during a rocky period in her life. Were her dreams worth chasing? Did she leave a good life behind? Is it too late to change the past?
Franco and Brie — she also starred in his 2020 Airbnb thriller "The Rental" — give Ally time to wrestle with these questions and herself, and to be imperfect. That's more than most romantic comedies allow their characters. For that reason it's a step in the right direction, not only for the genre and for Brie and Franco, but for people everywhere clumsily trying to get their lives together.
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'SOMEBODY I USED TO KNOW'
Grade: B
Rated: R (for sexual content, graphic nudity, language throughout and brief drug use)
Running time: 1:45
How to watch: Prime Video
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