Ben, a struggling filmmaker, lives in Berkeley, California, with his girlfriend, Miko, who works for a local Asian American film festival. When he’s not managing an art house movie theater as his day job, Ben spends his time obsessing over unavailable blond women, watching Criterion Collection DVDs, and eating in diners with his best friend, Alice, a queer grad student with a serial dating habit. When Miko moves to New York for an internship, Ben is left to his own devices and begins to explore what he thinks he might want.
"Based on Adrian Tomine’s eponymous 2007 graphic novel and adapted for the screen by Tomine himself (the author modernizes the screenplay to resemble current millennial concerns and references), “Shortcomings” is an accomplished debut, a profoundly perceptive movie that challenges the status-quo in small, rewarding ways." - The Playlist
"What makes Shortcomings great is that even though the characters can be rude, brash, and even assholes at times, they’re well layered and given depth to the point where they’re real enough to like by the time the credits roll." - This Week Media