By: Andrew Wing

I Want You Back is a 2022 American romantic comedy film directed by Jason Orley from a screenplay written by Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger. The film stars Charlie Day (It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia, Horrible Bosses), and Jenny Slate (Bob’s Burgers, Parks and Recreation) in the lead roles, while Gina Rodriguez (Annihilation, Jane the Virgin), Scott Eastwood (The Fate of the Furious, The Outpost), Manny Jacinto (The Good Place, Bad Times at the El Royale), Clark Backo (Letterkenny, The Handmaid’s Tale), and Mason Gooding (Booksmart, Scream) also star.

The film follows Peter (Day) and Emma (Slate) as two recently dumped strangers who team up to sabotage the new relationships of their exes (Rodriguez and Eastwood).

It was digitally released on February 11, 2022, by Amazon Studios.

THE GOOD

I Want You Back has been at the very top of my watchlist ever since I originally saw the trailer for it at the beginning of the year, but one thing led to another, and I didn’t watch it until June. The reason I had it so high on my watchlist was for one, I love me some Charlie Day and I don’t know why I haven’t started It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia yet because everyone says it’s the best comedy show on television. Aside from Day being hilarious, I also quite enjoy Jenny Slate, and I’m not afraid to admit that while the rom-com isn’t my favorite movie genre, I still enjoy a solid rom-com every now and then, most recently Cha Cha Real Smooth (see my full review here). But was this a solid one, or was it another in a long list of terrible rom-coms? Keep reading to find out!

THIS. WAS. SOLID. Very solid to be exact. I had a feeling it would be good after I initially saw the trailer but I never expected it to be one of my favorite movies of the year thus far. But boy oh boy was I wrong. The performances were amazing and I’ll be sure to touch on them later in the review, but this was such a great film from start to finish! I had never heard of the director or either of the writer’s names before, but I will be sure to not forget them after this. Jason Orley’s direction, while it wasn’t Oscar-level good, it didn’t need to be. His direction here was simple but it got the job done, and I cannot wait to see what he does next! As for the writers Isaac Aptaker and Elizabeth Berger, I really thought that they knocked it out of the park here. It’s super hard to come up with something original when it comes to making a rom-com, but they somehow did it and I’m sure their phones have been blowing up for future projects ever since this hit Amazon Prime.

Alright, enough waiting, let’s get to the lead performances we get from Charlie Day and Jenny Slate! They were both fantastic! First and foremost, the chemistry these two shared was marvelous and I could be wrong, but I’m pretty sure this is the first time these two have been in a feature film together and that is shocking because their chemistry was that good. They are both known for their comedic roles, usually in supporting roles, but together they were amazing as the leads here. First, with Day, he is just so damn funny and a lot of it is simply because of his iconic voice. The way he yells and raises his voice is hilarious and he had a good amount of those in I Want You Back. As for Slate, I would probably say she had the best performance of the bunch here. She is equally as funny as Day, but I also thought she nailed all of the more dramatic scenes in the film too. Call me crazy, but if Slate takes the right role, I could definitely see her getting some awards love.

Now the great thing about I Want You Back is that it wasn’t just the lead performances that were good, it was the performances of the entire cast. They all made the film as good as it was and more than that, the entire cast had chemistry so good you’d think that they were shooting this project for years! The best of the bunch when it came to the supporting cast for me was Scott Eastwood. Now Eastwood might never become as good as an actor as his father, a guy by the name of Clint Eastwood, let me know if you’ve ever heard of him, but I would say after this that he is already a better comedic actor than his old man. Granted, Clint wasn’t known for comedy as much as is known for spaghetti westerns, but I was extremely impressed by what Scott gave us comedically here. I think he’s a very underrated actor, and I just can’t wait to see how big he gets in the next couple of years because he has got what it takes.

Other than that, there were so many other things I appreciated about I Want You Back. Gina Rodriguez, Manny Jacinto, Clark Backo, and Mason Gooding all were excellent. The movie was very well-paced and a lot of that is a credit to the editing that was done by Jonathan Schwartz. It had a simple score that Goldspot did, and Brian Burgoyne’s cinematography just brought another layer to an already very well-put-together movie. One more thing, whoever’s idea it was to have the middle school student’s drama play be Little Shop of Horrors was genius, but at the same time, I want your contact info because I can’t stop singing “Suddenly, Seymour”, and I’m sorry, but that’s your fault.

THE BAD

If you couldn’t tell by me already saying that this is one of my favorite movies of the year, I don’t have a lot of negative things to say about I Want You Back. It’s enjoyable from start to finish and the acting was superb! I will say though, that there were some minor quips I had. First, some of the jokes didn’t land, but that just comes with the territory. Second, and this was the bigger problem I had and the big overall problem I have with rom-coms was that you know how the film is going to end from the second you press play. I don’t know, I still liked the ending, but it’d just be nice one time to not know how a rom-com is going to end because I love to be surprised.

THE VERDICT

Behind some fantastic acting from the entire cast that was led by Charlie Day and Jenny Slate, I Want You Back is one of the better rom-coms of the past few years, and it’s one of my favorites from the first half of 2022. Day and Slate were hilarious and their chemistry was perfect, and Scott Eastwood shined in his supporting role as he showed he’s got some comedic skills to go with his good looks.

All in all, this is such an easy movie to recommend as I can’t see anyone not enjoying it as much as I did, so go check it out now on Prime Video!