Review of Me Him Her (2016) by Writetoreel — 01 Apr 2016

I’m gay for this movie! I loved it. But I know there are some who will hate it. And I can completely understand that.

It might be a generational thing. Come to find out, me and Max Landis are pretty much the same age. Him being born in ’85, and me in ‘84.

Max Landis gets a lot of hate, I do think a majority of that comes from jealousy. We all want what he has. I mean, only about 1% ever get here. And you look at his less than stellar filmography and you think, this guy? I’m better than this guy!

What I do think he excels at is giving you high concept film ideas, told in a very interesting manner. A gritty buddy cop film, but his partner is an orc! It’s Jason Bourne if Jason Bourne was a neurotic stoner! It’s an unorthodox love story with a giant penis attacking people! Wait… what?

So that brings us to Me Him Her. Max ain’t got no time for no &’s in this story. We got texts and tweets to send out, we ain’t got no time for any of that AND ****.

Brendan is gay. For some reason he is just now realizing this. Unfortunately, he is also the star of a tv series. Which I’m still trying to figure the plot to. They’re like time traveling detectives… or ninjas… or pirates… There’s also a ton of gay innuendo in the show. Hell, the name of the series is Hard Justice. Get it? Because dicks! His co-star is Haley Joel Osment, which this film needed waaaaay more of.

Haley Joel Osment has the funniest scene, with him on a treadmill, surrounded by cats, yelling on the phone with Brendan.

"Are you totally **** gay right now? Hey! Get down off that table! Sorry, I’m yelling at my cats.".

To help Brendo come out, he needs the support of his best friend Cory. They had planned to move out to LA together but Cory chickened out, choosing to stay back at their home town, working his safe but boring job.

But the whole point of the film really, is that sexuality isn't so black and white all the time.

You could look at it as Brendan gets turned gay by a single kiss and Gabbi gets turned straight by a one night stand. You can look at it like that, but the way Max Landis handled it, I think was the right way. He makes it pretty clear that sexuality just isn't that simple. That's something I think CHASING AMY really got wrong and is incredibly outdated by to today's standards. It was very 90's.

One thing I do want to bring up, the inside jokes this film sometimes tells. Like they might seem really funny to Max, but anyone not him or even outside his circle might find confusing. The fact every gay person in the film likes to order Jack and Coke with a shot of Jäger is kind of weird. Is that a thing? It’s brought up several times in the film and each time I just didn’t get it.

At times you also get random text on the screen. Like when Branden is spotted at the gay club and he says his name is Bronk Ozlaw. Did that really warrant text on the screen? It happens so sporadically throughout the film. I guess it was just a directorial choice. Oh, have I gone this far without mentioning this is also Max Landis’ first film as director? Well it is. He has even stated that this is more true to his writing than anything he has had produced before. So… take from that what you will.

I do like the fact that never once do you think any of the characters are turned straight or turned gay. Sexuality is played very gray, not everything is always so black and white. The best real life example of this that I can really think of is the NY Mayor De Blasio's wife. Who identified as a lesbian for most of her life. I’m not sure what she considers herself now, but does it really matter?

- Capt.