Review of That Awkward Moment (2014) by Nicky N — 15 Jul 2014

I'm not the biggest fan of romantic comedies. This should probably come as no surprise considering the fact that I am a guy. Most romantic comedies are brain-dead movies with lame jokes appealing to women who just want to go awww at the end when the couple finally gets together. Usually not a lot of thought is put into them and most are Hollywood factory manufactured pieces of crap. One huge grudge I have against them is the fact that the genre almost destroyed the career of Matthew McConaughey. Sure he fought and clawed his way out and has proved that he is a great actor, but it is troubling to think that his career was almost massacred by dumb rom-coms like Failure to Launch, Fool's Gold, and Ghost of Girlfriend's Past. Fortunately though we have seen quite a positive evolution in the rom-com genre. Recent good romantic comedies like Knocked Up and Don Jon have changed the rules of the rom-com genre and taken it into a better direction. The latest of these rom-com movies to change the rules is That Awkward Moment.

The movie is about three friends from college who are in their late 20s. You've got the good looking Jason (Zac Efron), the smartass Daniel (Miles Teller), and the responsible Mikey (Michael B. Jordan). Mikey has found out that his wife that he married at a young age has been cheating on him. He seeks support from his two best friends Jason and Daniel who encourage him to get back into the bachelor lifestyle. All three of them come to the conclusion that they should make a pact to stay single and just create rosters of girls they can sleep with. The trouble is Mikey still has feelings for his soon to be ex-wife, Daniel is falling for his best female friend, and Jason is in love with a new co-worker.

I went into this movie pretty interested and although the trailer looked funny I was worried that it would turn out to be very mediocre. My worries were put to rest right away when I realized that I walked into a raunchy romantic comedy that is actually told from the guy's perspective. I knew it would be from the guy's perspective from watching the trailer, but it really goes all out and turned out to be way funnier than I could have imagined. This is actually the first movie I have ever seen Zac Efron in, because I missed his previous movies High School Musical and 17 Again mostly due to the fact that I'm not a 14 year old teenage girl. Like most guys I kind of didn't want to like Efron, but he really did show me something in this movie. Even though all three of the main actors star in the movie he is certainly the main guy and he pulls off a pretty decent and solid performance. I knew Michael B. Jordan and Miles Teller would be good, because I've seen them both give solid performances last year in Fruitvale Station and The Spectacular Now. Zac Efron was the one I was most unfamiliar with and he completely delivered. All three had good chemistry and really made me believe in their characters.

One small flaw I had with the movie is the fact that it doesn't really round out the female characters that the main characters fall in love with very well. You can kind of see their personalities and you get some glimpses of their background, but overall they are just kind of there. I don't really mind that all that much, but it is a flaw I see done to the guy characters in romantic comedies all the time. Most of the music in the movie is pretty modern, but the filmmakers make an interesting choice in having '80s electronic sounding music in the background of the bar scenes. That may sound normal for a lot of bars, but the music here was way more retro sounding than the usual modern day electronic crap you hear in bars and I liked it.

I don't think That Awkward Moment is a completely flawless movie, but overall it is a solid addition to modern day rom-coms that are shown from the guy's perspective. It is a nice portrayal of guys who are hesitant to move on from young adulthood to the more complicated thirties where they will have more responsibilities and start families. It also does a great job at taking rom-com cliches and turning them into comedic moments. That Awkward Moment isn't quite as funny or as intimate as last year's Don Jon, which was a somewhat similar movie, but it certainly holds it's own and is a decent movie overall.