Good on Paper (2021)

June 24, 2021 3:03 PM

(Netflix) After years of putting her career first, a stand-up comic meets a guy who seems perfect: smart, nice, successful and possibly too good to be true. Written by and starring standup comic Iliza Shlesinger, in a "mostly" true story from her life.

Iliza Shlesinger’s Ex-Boyfriend Lied About Everything—So She Made a Netflix Movie About Him

‘Good on Paper’ True Story: Iliza Shlesinger’s Dating Horror Story Inspired the Netflix Movie

Iliza Shlesinger previously on the Blue:
Pussies and World War II

posted by rogerroger (6 comments total)

So I really enjoyed this movie, even though Schlesinger has her detractors on MeFi judging from that previous post from the Blue I linked. I wasn't familiar with her before watching this. I thought the switching between standup and movie scenes was fun - it seemed more like the movie was "acting out a standup routine" than a typical movie, but I was up for that and it made for less taxing viewing.

Schlesinger also made some good points about American society telling women to "lower their standards" with the implication being, your assumptions are WRONG, and how that could lead to second guessing your completely legit instincts. There's a difference between saying "Why not try something new??" and saying "Throw caution to the wind!!" but I've definitely confused the two before, especially in my early 20s (white cisgender woman here) and ended up in some dangerous and shitty situations.

I'm also a huge Veronica Mars fan and thus a Ryan Hansen fan, which brought me to the movie initlally! I thought he did a great job in this movie, showing a more sinister and calculating side of his "Millenial bro down to party" persona that he typically plays in every role.
posted by rogerroger at 3:15 PM on June 24, 2021 [2 favorites]

I have always felt like I need to settle for literally any warm body with a penis that is willing to take me. I have always known with my looks and personality that very few like me At All and most of them are super old, creepy, have a serial killer nickname, compulsive liar...you get the drift. There is a lot of social pressure on women to never turn a guy down. You are worthless without a man, and hey, what might he do to you if you don't fuck him?

I don't think I can actually watch this after reading about her ex (an ex-friend of mine married the compulsive liar...he was literally all she could get) but I relate to the huuuuge pressure to "give him a chance!" And how terrifying it is to give that damn chance when your body screams NOOOOOOO, but if you say no, bad things happen too.
posted by jenfullmoon at 7:13 PM on June 24, 2021

I liked this movie a lot but could have done without the fat-shaming towards Ryan Hanson’s character. It was otherwise good and I love Margaret Cho in this. It’s definitely insightful about that certain kind of relationship and it describes TOO MANY of them in my life, and it’s only a pattern I picked up on a few years ago, too.
posted by jeweled accumulation at 5:33 PM on June 25, 2021 [3 favorites]

Agreed re: fat-shaming, jeweled accumulation! Very good point.
posted by rogerroger at 10:40 PM on June 25, 2021 [1 favorite]

I’ve watched about half of this and I’ll probably watch the rest because it’s an enjoyable watch that goes down easy.

However, I was sort of taken aback when the main character justifies hanging out with the guy even though she’s not attracted to him by saying it’s like men sleeping with women with no intention of marrying them and it was one of those moments that just made me go “oh right, there are still some pretty retrograde attitudes in vast swaths of straight culture.” I’m not even really criticizing it per se, it just felt so “15 years ago on Reddit,” or even worse, it’s Purity Culture, this idea that Men Want Sex and Women Want Marriage. And it seemed off coming from this character who was being pretty open/unapologetic about the fact that she only wanted to have sex with men she was honestly attracted to.

Like, isn’t just enjoying each other’s company enough reason to hang out with someone of the opposite sex without having sex with them? I often feel like this attitude is treated as naive but that’s only because so much of heteronormative culture holds onto these ideas of what men want vs what women want.

Sorry, probably too deep a rant for such a movie but it really just felt so discordant.
posted by lunasol at 8:57 AM on July 6, 2021

Finally got around to this on a drizzly Sunday afternoon. I liked it. I'm not really familiar with Schlesinger's stand up, but I found her likable enough in this. I liked that they didn't make Hansen too convincing a liar - he gets by on charm, not cunning, heh - but made it seem plausible how Andrea could still get caught up and fall for him, despite the red flags.

Not amazing, but had its moments. I think my favorite joke was the golf course attendant being named Chanterelle. I also loved the moment she turned up on his porch and met his roommates - the "OMG, this girlfriend is actually real" energy was palpable.
posted by the primroses were over at 11:52 AM on September 5, 2021 [1 favorite]