"Entergalactic," premiering Friday on Netflix, comes from Scott Mescudi, who makes records as Kid Cudi, under which moniker he's also releasing an album of the same name. Originally intended as a series, its episodes have been smushed together into a 90-minute movie marked by chapter headings. This feels right, given that it plays like a feature, a sweet, corny and fairly adorable rom-com, temperamentally old-fashioned but made newfangled by virtue of being animated and the musical tie-in. (The songs are in the picture; the picture illustrates the songs.)
Created by Mescudi with Kenya Barris ("black-ish"), with a story by Mescudi and a teleplay by Maurice Williams and Ian Edelman — who gave the world the great, underappreciated "How to Make It in America," in which Mescudi co-starred — the show was written to fit the album, described by Mescudi as "a suite of songs on the beauty of being freed by love." Romantic comedy feels like a natural extension of Mescudi's songwriting, with its recurrent themes of personal growth.
The plot is simple, following the venerable arc of "boy meets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl." (Sorry if that constitutes a spoiler, but if it is you need to watch more movies.) Jabari (Mescudi) unadvisedly hooks up with Carmen (Laura Harrier), a former girlfriend he hasn't seen in several months, just before he meets fated-to-be-mated new neighbor Meadow (Jessica Williams); misunderstandings lead to alienation, which leads, inevitably, to reconciliation. (This is not a dark drama.) The framework would have served Cary Grant and Irene Dunne well in their day, though they would have been living on the Upper East Side, drinking cocktails instead of smoking weed — and not having sex, of course, until just after the closing credits. (That the characters hail taxis instead of calling for ride-shares feels like a nod to an earlier New York.)
