Somebody I Used to Know Parent Guide

After the latest season of her TV show wraps, overworked producer Ally (Alison Brie) decides on a whim to go back to her hometown to see her mom. While there, she runs into her ex, Sean (Jay Ellis), and feels the old spark rekindling. That is, until she learns that Sean is getting married this weekend. As Ally gets wrapped up in her old friends, her old life, and Sean, she starts to examine the person she’s become and the choice she made to leave a decade ago.

It takes a lot to successfully subvert a genre like a rom-com, or even a romantic drama. Huge deviations from the established formula can feel unearned or desperate but Somebody I Used to Know somehow pulls it off. With a great script, Alison Brie’s amazing performance, and Franco’s deft direction, the story successfully changes the genre into something that feels fresh and modern, without feeling like it’s trying too hard. This is a love story, but not in the way you expect.

Where the story succeeds is in how it sneaks up on you. Ally is a flawed person, and there are many times where you don’t want to root for her. Sean also has flaws that become more and more apparent as the film unfolds. I thought the script was going to force them together in a very toxic, though expected for the genre, way, and was bracing myself for the inevitable. Then the unexpected happened; the writers skirted convention and told a completely different story than the one I thought I was watching, and it was far better than I could have imagined. It takes a lot of skill to catch the viewer off guard part way through the runtime without alienating the audience and the writers pull it off expertly. This film hit me on an emotional level that I did not expect, but it was a welcome catharsis.

That said, this is not a film for families, or for people who are sensitive to swearing, sex, or nudity. There are multiple scenes involving full frontal nudity in a non-sexual context, as well as a couple of sex scenes, though with far less nudity. There’s also a lot of swearing, social drinking, and a scene where characters smoke weed. So, if you are not comfortable with any of those things, heed the R rating and stay far, far away. For me though, I think Franco and Brie have hit on something that Hollywood is sorely missing; a love story about falling in love with yourself.