There are few things worse than That Awkward Moment

Guys are douchebags … at least they are in Hollywood movies about relationships and the guys afraid to be in them. Take the new rom-com-dram That Awkward Moment. Please. (Ba dum bum.) In the film, we meet Jason (Zac Efron), Daniel (Miles Teller) and Mikey (Michael B. Jordan). Jason has a roster of women he goes through once they get to the “so where are we going from here” question, Daniel uses his female best friend as his wing man, and Mikey – the only one in a relationship – has just been blindsided by his wife’s infidelity and divorce papers.

All three guys are attractive (well, two of them are and one is just average) and have good jobs judging by their clothing and fabulous New York City apartments. But Jason and Daniel are jerks and Mikey is just needy and teetering on becoming a jerk as well, especially after the guys make a pact that none of them will fall in love and enter into a relationship, thus breaking up the friendship. Of course, they all do end up falling for someone, then lying to each other, and eventually hurting the women in the process (although Mikey has the opposite trajectory as he is used and hurt again by his ex). And, spoiler alert, by some miracle of absurd script contrivance, Jason and Daniel are forgiven and Mikey sets up a date with some woman who gave him her number MONTHS ago (apparently she’s been patiently sitting by the phone waiting for his call).

That Awkward Moment is pure Hollywood, male wish fulfillment fantasy. Jason and Daniel are awful people, especially Jason who treats the one woman he’s totally interested in like dirt. Mikey is the only one who garners any sympathy because he was already in a relationship that failed, but you kind of hope it will eventually work out in the end. Regardless, I don’t know anyone who would really want to spend any time with these self-centered, narcissistic assholes who seem to think a woman is merely a receptacle for their “junk.” This movie is really insulting to women, which it depicts simply as creatures who need a man in their lives. They can have careers, but their lives just aren’t complete without a man.

Many people in my screening audience were laughing loudly throughout the movie, but I think I may have chuckled once and someone nearby was actually snoring. At one point, one of the guys gets hit by a cab and I nearly cheered, hoping the movie would suddenly give us a twist and turn into another chapter in the Final Destination franchise (I also hoped that maybe Jason’s girlfriend would reveal that she was a vampire in one scene – she looked like she was about to bite him in the neck – really flipping the script and making the story much more interesting).

That Awkward Moment certainly looks slick and gives us another fantasy version of New York City, but I should have sniffed out the fact that this is writer/director Tom Gormican’s first feature credit … after producing the notorious Movie 43. This is, in fact, the second movie I’ve seen in a week by a first timer (check out my review of At Middleton Friday) and they both make all the same mistakes by filling the movie with cliché after cliché. Both movies just made me angry at the waste of talent on screen. Not even Zac’s dreamy blue eyes can save this one, especially when the best moment comes from the last outtake (none of the others are particularly funny) which plays during the end credits. That Awkward Moment may end up being awkward for everyone involved.