Female Filmmaker Friday: Set It Up (2018)
If there is one type of movie that I enjoy sitting and binging on my days off, it’s romantic comedies. There is something about the charm that these movies possess that I find so lovely and easy to watch. Sure many of these stories have similar plots and cliche endings, but these movies take me away from all the unfortunate news that we see and hear every day and put me in a mood that I’d rather be in.
A few years ago, after I saw Richard Linklater’s Everybody Wants Some!!, I instantly became a fan of the cast. I followed two of the actors on instagram afterwards, Glen Powell and Zoey Deutch. Both of their accounts are to this day a favorite of mine. So when I found out that they were going to be in a movie together, I was on board. Together they star in the recently released Set It Up by Claire Scanlon and written by Katie Silberman.
Harper (Zoey Deutch) and Charlie (Glen Powell) are assistants for two work hungry corporate executives in the same building. Harper’s boss is Kirsten (Lucy Liu), a sports journalist, while Charlie’s boss is Rick (Taye Diggs), a venture capitalist. Harper and Charlie work day in and day out to make sure that their bosses aren’t hitting a 4.0 on the anxiety richter sale. After a run in with each other, the two assistants decide to play matchmakers. They set up plans to trick Kirsten and Rick to meet by happenstance and fall in love so they can have some time off for once. As more free time enters schedules, Harper and Charlie start hanging out together more often and get to know each other and their friends. You can probably predict where this is going. Insert conflict and get a cute little love story by the end.
What I love most are the female characters. Women in the sports industry aren’t seen as much as one would like. There are a few here and there that work on broadcasts but not many, so to see two women in that workforce feels really good to watch. One of my favorite things is the fact that Harper is a no bullshit kind of girl. She is given a sports loving characteristic. She cries at beautiful sports moments, which I can’t say I haven’t done before since watching the Eagles win the Super Bowl in the beginning of 2018. Harper has a quirky sense of humor, says whatever she wants to say, and she is fierce in her delivery with a strong head on her shoulders, even when she is without a job.
Glen Powell and Zoey Deutch have a perfect chemistry. I want more movies with them in it as leads. The way that they feed off of each other’s energy is what makes this rom-com so adorable. It’s a relationship anyone would want. Time spent with each other that’s filled with laughs and love. A lot of romantic comedies today feel overly sexualized and try way too hard to make a pun making the movie horribly annoying. However, Set It Up takes a step back and has punchy one liners and little gimmicks that reel us back into the 90’s comedic love that we once had on the big screen.
After watching it three times in the past two weeks, it is safe to say that this is my favorite romantic comedy that I’ve seen in awhile. Having it written and directed by women is an absolute plus too and gives me all the happy feels. Set It Up packs charm and wit and I hope more people seek this out on Netflix to watch it. It’s a very fun watch and it will have you smiling to the end credits.
