Set It Up
by Katie Silberman
Treehouse Pictures
Long have we bemoaned the fall of the Romantic Comedy genre, and we aren’t the only ones.
Chrissy Teigen feels our pain. Netflix felt that pain and seems to be willing the entire genre back into our hearts. Thank god, I know I need a bit of wacky hijinks and perhaps more screwball in my life right now.
Set It Up is a Netflix original starring Zoey Deutch and Glen Powell as Harper and Charlie, beleaguered assistants to Kristen and Rick, played by Lucy Liu and Taye Diggs. They’re both Miranda Priestly-type, Devil-Wears-Prada style bosses. They work impossible hours and expect their assistants to work even longer hours, be their brains and hands, and generally wait upon them hand and foot.
After a chance meeting in the lobby of their office building, fighting over a dinner order, Harper and Charlie decide that in order to get themselves a break, they will “full on Parent Trap” their bosses. If Kristen and Rick are banging each other, that’s time they won’t spend torturing their assistants. It’s a reasonable plan when viewed through the lens of sleep deprivation and low pay for way too much work. Of course, it’s also a really thick, vaseline-smeared lens that doesn’t actually make much sense, but that’s where the comedy part comes in. Naturally, this involves Charlie and Harper spending a lot of time together, and sparks fly.
Also there’s a hilarious compare/contrast between Parent Trapping and Cyrano de Bergerac-ing, which makes my literature loving little heart go pitter pat.
The fun thing about this movie is that Kristen is the editor of a sports journalism website, and Harper is suffering through the position of Kristen’s assistant in order to get her foot in the door and become a sports journalist herself. We know that there’s a severe deficit in the number of female sports writers and commentators and I loved that Set It Up showed women making a place for themselves in sports media. (I’m gonna throw in a plug for the podcast Leveling the Playing Field, which is done by a law school classmate of mine, Bobbi-Sue Doyle-Hazard. The purpose of LTPF is to highlight women in the sports industry, and to give young women exposure to the various careers available. Bobbi-Sue is awesome.)
Ha, Set It Up. I just got the sports pun. Sweet.
Rick is Finance Dude, and Charlie is putting up with his abuse because he’s hoping for a promotion. It’s a textbook abusive relationship: Rick will give Charlie just enough proof of humanity to keep Charlie hanging on, even though Charlie knows this shit ain’t never gonna change. But he’s got a hot model girlfriend and is kind of hoping that once he gets his promotion, he’ll be worthy of her. (Spoiler: she’s not worthy of him, which is kind of an easy way out.)
Anyway, given that this is a ROMANTIC comedy, how are the romances? It’s fun to see Lucy Liu (who is great at both ball busting and comedy) and Taye Diggs go head to head. It’s also interesting to see how a relationship that’s based on someone else’s lies gets to its logical conclusion. I’m going to leave that there, because they’re not the A couple.
The A couple is Harper and Charlie, of course. They’re both sort of dating other people, but they find that they have equally devious minds and complement each other really well. They’re both terrifyingly competent- good assistants have to be, and they’ve survived as long as they have in their jobs because of this trait. Charlie especially just appreciates Harper’s mind and drive. I like them together. Zoey Deutch has an excellent frenetic energy for Harper, and Glen Powell is the kinda snarky dude that I really go for.
There’s a bunch of fun secondary characters, including a HILARIOUS cameo by Kimmy Schmidt’s Titus Burgess and Charlie’s roommate Duncan, played by SNL’s Pete Davidson (who gets the greatest moment of anyone. You’ll know it when you see it).
In other fun trivia: Set It Up was directed by Claire Scanlon, who was SUPER PREGNANT during the shoot.
Fun fact: Claire Scanlon directed "Set It Up" when she was 7 to 9 months pregnant, and often with her two-year-old daughter on set. She had her second baby a week after wrapping.
…Females are strong as hell. pic.twitter.com/DmprasJLhl
— Netflix Tudum (@NetflixTudum) June 15, 2018
and you know what? that is also ok, and you are also strong. Strong as hell = taking the appropriate time to achieve what you want to achieve in the best way possible for you and your family.
— Netflix (@netflix) June 15, 2018
If Netflix is going to reverse the RomCom drought, I’m good with that. After the stress of last week and all the terrible news, this movie felt like a cool washcloth over a sunburn.
This isn’t a deep movie. It’s got moments, and it’s got a charming cast who have a lot of fun. This is a “it’s Friday night and I got wine” movie. I would be perfectly happy if Netflix released a new RomCom every Friday from here on out: I think we need it. Do you need it? I bet you do.
I know a bunch of you watched it, and we have a guest review, so, are you here for the RomComissance?
Watched it as soon as it was released. I was missing RomComs as hell! Your grade is spot on.
I wish there were more movies made in this genre.
Me too, though it looks like Netflix has some other rom coms on there at the moment.
Yes I need that. I need romcoms. And I do NOT mean we should get Kate Hudson to make more because I insisted on watching Fool’s Gold on Valentine’s Day when it came out years ago and my now-husband has yet to forgive me for that crap.
I mean, he married me anyway, but it’s still an issue.
I’m all for rom-coms and it’s what I watch most on Netflix.
With that being said… this movie was kinda disappointing. The premise is my cup of tea but the two lead actors (the assistants) were so boring.
It would have been much better if Lucy Liu had twice as much lines and screentime.
I loved everything about it. EVERYTHANG
I love me some Lucy Liu and it’s way too long since I saw Taye Diggs being hot, so I’m going to see if my friend with Netflix wants to set up a movie night. 🙂
What I loved about it most was as soon as I started watching I was completely absorbed. Didn’t worry about the world imploding or monster politicians or anything I didn’t realize how much I needed that mental break. Even reading is something I do with one eye on the news these days. The story was cute too and I’d have loved more LL and TD but it was delightful as is for me.
I don’t get the sports pun. Its kinda driving me nuts.
I’ve seen this promo’d. Thanks for the review, because it was an insta-write-off for me. Probably because of poor rom-coms + netflix. I’ll have to take a look at it. At the very least, it’ll give me something to watch while I’m down at a friend’s over the 4th.
@Alyssa You set up the shot.
are there more rom com movies to watch on netflick though?
I am ALL about the competent heroines in rom-coms. That’s a refreshing twist to the well-worn genre. Extra high-fives to Netlfix for their support of all mamas, whether that mom wants to direct a feature film or enjoy a meal from her husband.
@mamxnb- I asked basically the same question in the comment thread for the Guest Squee of this moving and got some great suggestions.
I watched last night and really really liked it for exactly what it was- a sweet and funny (not stupid) romantic comedy with a likeable cast, and fun supporting characters. Big bonus points for some diversity and realism of living and working in the city.
I also really like that no one blinks an eye that women successfully read and write about sports. I was a little worried about the “dragon lady” stereotype Lucy Liu’s Kirsten was falling into, but I felt it was well played at the end and justified.
Oh, one question though- when Charlie references the “Lindsey Lohan classic” known as The Parent Trap- was that supposed to be an eye-rolling moment or am I honestly that old?
@Emily C
I’m younger than Charlie and I still raised an eyebrow at that line. I guess “too old” is not very old.
Unfortunately I didn’t like it. The cast was pretty good and likeable, and I loved the plot and the overall idea… Buuuut what ruined it for me were all the icky moments – the dialogue throughout was peppered with some jokes, phrases, etc that I often found a bit gross (it reminded me of toilet humor, even if ot wasn’t precisely that). And there was even that scene with urinating in the elevator that was just gross and not funny (at least not to me.)
But as I said, apart from that, the movie was well made so I understand why people like it. 🙂