There will be spoilers for Always be my Maybe

So I recently watched Always be my Maybe (2019) on Netflix (free trial shenanigans… ah it was great) and it was interesting. I quite liked it. I mean I liked the overall plot and the journey of Sasha Tran (Ali Wong) as her relationship was restored with her parents and her chef journey opening the authentic restaurant and also her dating journey.

I did like seeing her relationship develop with Marcus Kim (Randall Park) but I did not root for them to end up together and that’s a first for me in a rom com.

He was just so annoying from beginning to end. Ok perhaps not from beginning, it was cute in the beginning but it goes downhill fast.

At first I understood. The first time he lashed out at her it made sense because he’d just lost his mom and he was raw. Also they’d just had sex and I’m sure he was confused and going through emotions he wasn’t ready to handle especially as up to that moment he thought she didn’t like him in that way (they were childhood friends). So I wasn’t for what he said but I understood why he lashed out.

When they met again I thought he would have learnt from that incident. I mean they ended up not seeing or speaking to each other for sixteen years right? So wouldn’t he learn from that and realise, “Oh words hurt and I should think before I speak.”? Spoiler alert he didn’t learn.

So Sasha breaks up with her boyfriend and starts dating Keanu Reeves (Keanu Reeves… he plays a caricature of himself really… I enjoyed that part immensely). And Marcus gets jealous even though he has a girlfriend because he loves Sasha… of course and it gets revealed she always liked him from childhood.

So they ditch their dates and get with each other. Then there’s a red carpet event and Marcus goes with Sasha and as Sasha is the star she gets the spotlight and he ends up holding her bag. Then she reveals she’s still going to go to New York to help open her new restaurant.

Marcus gets all mad because a) he doesn’t want to be the guy who holds her bag all the time, b) he thinks she’s a phony and c) he doesn’t want to move to New York (the film is mostly set in San Francisco).

He doesn’t just express this he uses his sharp words again until Sasha ends up leaving and then he calls to her out the window and she turns and tells him she loves him, that he needs to fix himself and leaves.

So the whole movie people have been encouraging him to take a risk and to move out of his area to experience more than his little bubble. It takes him seeing his father move on for him to move on.

I’m all here for growth but he was such a jerk. Why does she love him? She hasn’t seen him in sixteen years and his personality is just as abrasive as it was sixteen years before! Does she like abrasive personalities? Is that it?

There’s nothing wrong with being honest but being a jerk whilst being honest… I’m not here for it.

I should say he improves himself by the end of the movie by moving out of his comfort zone and on the surface that was great but I wasn’t convinced. What was he going to do about his insecurity? Sasha is still famous and he will still be the person in the background… is he suddenly ok with that? Will he lash out every time he feels a negative emotion?

He made the typical romantic declaration at another red carpet event and she showed him her authentic restaurant to show him she wasn’t a phony but at this point I was like screw you Marcus! You could have asked her if this was the only style of restaurant she’s going to do but no you lashed out.

He just seemed to lash out at each moment when he didn’t agree with what she was doing or saying.

So yeah I was not for the relationship. I would have loved the movie more if they had made up as friends but didn’t become a couple which honestly I thought was going to happen from the trailers.

Why do childhood best friends always have to end up together? But that’s another post.

What did you think of the movie? Did Marcus make you mad or did you love him?