The current landscape of moviegoing has basically killed the mid tier movie. What does that mean? Basically, anything that isn’t a superhero film, Oscar bait, or a horror film doesn’t make money, so it’s not getting money from a major studio. First casualty? The romantic comedy. Enter streaming services like Netflix, who have built entire models around couples who stay at home and watch Netflix together, and have basically saved the rom com. And if they keep putting out decent films like Set It Up, we hopefully have a nice future for romantic comedy filmmaking that otherwise seemed lost.
Harper (Zoey Deutch) and Charlie (Glen Powell) are those worker bees that lament when normal people JUST have to work a little overtime, because they’re in the office till midnight. Harper’s boss Kirsten (Lucy Liu) is a badass sports reporter staring her own company and Charlie’s boss Rick (Taye Diggs) is the venture capitalist du jour. The two bosses are great at their jobs, but that means they have zero personal lives, meaning Charlie and Harper have zero personal lives either. One crappy late night, the two plan to Cyrano (or is it Parent Trap?) Kirsten and Rick so they get some free time from their day to day jobs. It works so well that continued manipulation is necessary, causing Harper and Charlie to spend more time together, which leads to Harper murdering Charlie and Kirsten so she can run away with Rick.
I’m totally kidding with that last line, of course. Based on that plot description, you know that Charlie and Harper are going to end up together. The rules of the formula in Set It Up are totally respected. Do Charlie and Harper have sexually promiscuous friends as sounding boards? Duncan (Pete Davidson) and Becca (Meredith Hagner) would respond, you betcha! Is one of our leads in an unfulfilling relationship? Suze (Joan Smalls) is already looking to be freed from Charlie at minute 10. There’s clearly a well executed plan, friendship that turns into feelings, a near intimate moment that leads to a fight, and an airport fueled chase that leads to a kiss filled resolution. Set It Up knows exactly what it wants to sell the audience, and it does everything you would expect it to do with zero surprises.
So if there are no surprises in the rom com formula, why is it so successful? Because if the leads are likable and create some killer chemistry, you feel exuberance at watching attractive people find love. Thankfully, Set It Up dips into the Richard Linklater talent pool for its leads, Zoey Deutch and Glen Powell, who were both great in Everybody Wants Some!!. Both are game to try anything and fully commit to Set It Up. Deutch lets loose, playing frazzled, competitive, vulnerable, sexy, and crazy writer scene to scene, and nailing most of them pretty well. Powell was the best part of Everybody Wants Some!! and he brings that infectious effortless charm into Set It Up, perfectly executing the funny stuff but also probably delivering the best performance in the scene where Rick tells him he’s great. The movie is at its brightest when Powell and Deutch are just bounching off of each other, completely selling that spark a great rom com needs so it can earn their kiss at the end. Lucy Liu and Taye Diggs are having a blast essentially playing boss sidekicks, but they also know exactly when to dial it back to make sure they’re not cartoonish villains. Pete Davidson and Meredith Hagner don’t have enough to do but get a couple great moments for a zinger that will help them in sidekick roles in future Netflix films.
After many initial false starts, Netflix has probably found it’s formula for success. Their last few efforts they have taken time to cast their movies correctly, and struck perfect “Netflix and Chill” gold, with Set It Up and Alex Strangelove. Now that they’ve found the talent, perhaps we are entering an era where the casts just mix and match for a new story every couple of months, although I’d probably wait a couple years so the Alex Strangelove cast can get to drinking age…