Instead, it drags its flawed, real characters under the microscope, as Ben and his equally messy best friend Alice (Sherry Cola) navigate their haphazard love lives and inevitably rehash them over lunch. Their chemistry is the kinetic energy that a good romcom needs, simmering along and sustaining the film’s somewhat bleak examinations of modern dating.

Part of Ben’s initial fight with Miko, which leads her to accept an internship in New York and suggest they take a break, is his fetish for “white blonde women”. In true Ben fashion, he denies this claim and gaslights his girlfriend, even when she stumbles across his porn history. Once Miko is out of the picture and free from his denials, Ben starts to date a string of white blonde women – from his colleague Autumn (Tavi Gevinson) to Alice’s college friend Sasha (Debby Ryan) – as the film explores fetishism in interracial dating. Ben now has what he thought he wanted, but over time, and many nights alone on what used to be their couch, he begins to regret what he lost with Miko.

Though all is not quite as it seems. Ben does eventually realise the part he played in the breakdown of their relationship and flies out to New York to surprise Miko after she dodges his calls. To his surprise, she lied. In order to get away from Ben and make a fresh start in modelling – a career change she knew Ben wouldn’t approve of – Miko invented a fake internship, moved to a new city and started to date a tall, sexy fashion designer. Go Miko.

Ben is infuriated by her betrayal, and neither of them are without fault. But it’s refreshing that Shortcomings doesn’t sugarcoat the messiness of relationships and human nature. Miko felt she had to deceive Ben, while Ben happily accepted that Miko wanted to leave, without asking her to stay or moving with her to support her new venture.

Even with Alice, Ben is unable to hold back his sharp tongue or his attempts to sabotage her happiness when she enters a new relationship and starts to build a life without him. He skulks in the back of the bar, drink in hand, at her girlfriend Meredith’s birthday and makes a swift exit when he finds out Alice and Meredith are moving in together. We’re left with the distinct impression that Ben has never been happy for another person’s successes, as they only mirror his own failings. Although he can criticise everyone else’s decisions, he never addresses his own shortcomings.

Randall Park’s Shortcomings is a refreshing romcom that doesn’t make allowances for its flawed hero’s toxic traits