Jexi

“The entire premise of Jexi, that a broken man needs to be fixed by a woman, has no place in modern-day filmmaking.”

Title: Jexi (2019)
Directors: Jon Lucas 👨🏼🇺🇸 and Scott Moore 👨🏼🇺🇸
Writers: Jon Lucas 👨🏼🇺🇸 and Scott Moore 👨🏼🇺🇸

Reviewed by Laura Hindley 👩🏼🇬🇧🌈

Note: This review was commissioned by Lionsgate. The content and methodology remain 100% independent and in line with Mediaversity's non-commissioned reviews.

—SPOILERS AHEAD—

Technical: 2/5

Jexi takes your typical romantic comedy and weaves in a plot about mobile phone dependency. It tells its story through the lens of Phil (Adam Devine), a lonely listicle journalist with an unhealthy attachment to his device. When forced to upgrade to a new phone, Phil discovers that the latest model comes with a female voiced A.I. life coach and virtual assistant called Jexi (Rose Byrne)—a strikingly similar idea to 2013 sci-fi film Her, which sees a man develop a romantic relationship with an A.I. program. As Jexi pushes Phil to improve his life, he meets a local woman called Cate (Alexandra Shipp) and eventually dates her.

Though the concept is interesting enough, and our reliance on technology could definitely be further explored by storytellers, Jexi often feels more like a bro comedy than a romantic one. The script contains endless jokes about penis size, dick pics, and sex. Jexi begins by criticising Phil’s naked body when he’s in the shower, tells him that he is “unfuckable,” and repeatedly calls him stupid. Later, Jexi asks Phil to insert a charger into the phone’s charging socket to simulate sexual intercourse. Jexi moans and groans and eventually brings up an animation on the phone screen to indicate reaching orgasm. It’s uncomfortable to watch and feels shoehorned into the plot just to get cheap giggles. As a result of these tiresome and outdated jokes, Jexi only ever achieves a very small handful of laughs.

While Jexi’s script underwhelms, the cinematography captures San Francisco beautifully, with some lovely shots of the Golden Gate bridge. However, even the expert camerawork doesn’t prevent the film from becoming stale as scene after scene yields yet another conversation between a man and his phone.

Gender: 2.5/5
Does it pass the Bechdel Test? NOPE

The entire premise of Jexi, that a broken man needs to be fixed by a woman, is a common trope that has no place in modern-day filmmaking. Even worse, both Jexi and Cate only exist to flesh out Phil’s character development.

Jexi encourages Phil to push outside his own comfort zone through actions like socializing with his co-workers, asking Cate out on a date, and requesting a work promotion. In addition, Cate encourages Phil to be more impulsive, which leads to the couple sneaking backstage at a Kid Cudi concert. Given that Byrne’s deadpan delivery carries Jexi, it’s a shame that her character serves to further a man’s narrative instead of elevating the film’s comedic value.

The film’s synopsis describes Jexi as a personal cheerleader tasked with helping Phil to make some positive life changes, however this couldn’t be further from what we see on screen. Instead of providing support to Phil, Jexi begins their relationship by verbally abusing and humiliating him. To make matters worse, when Phil begins to date Cate, Jexi becomes jealous and reiterates that Cate does not have the important qualities that she does, such as emojis or the Pokemon Go app, and pressures Phil to end his relationship. The choice to portray Jexi as neurotic and controlling deliberately plays into the stereotype of women competing with each other for a man's attention.

Race: 2.75/5

Jexi thankfully bucks the historical trend of only employing white actors in comedies. Diverse supporting characters include Cate (Alexandra Shipp, who is biracial white and Black), Phil’s co-workers Craig (Ron Funches, who is Black) and Elaine (Charlyne Yi, who is Filipino, white, Latinx, and Native American), and his boss Kai (Michael Peña, Mexican American).

Furthermore, it’s positive to see that Jexi reflects the racial diversity of its setting. San Francisco’s 2019 demographics were 40% non-Hispanic white, 35% Asian, 15% Hispanic, and 5% Black, and this split is evident on screen.

Though Jexi takes small steps towards normalizing racial diversity in comedy, we learn very little about each supporting character, and their screen time is limited to scenes with the white male lead. When Phil builds a friendship with his work colleagues Elaine and Craig, he learns that he has a lot in common with the duo, such as a shared love of Days of Thunder (1990), and even joins their kickball team. However, once those scenes have finished, both are forgotten about and not mentioned again until Phil returns to his office setting. As such, the film misses an opportunity to portray these characters as three-dimensional people who exist outside of Phil’s world.

One big issue I have with Jexi involves the unnecessary jokes made at the expense of Asian communities. When Phil receives his new phone, he exclaims: “Thank you to all the little Chinese children for crafting such a perfect phone.” Later in a work meeting, Jexi loudly refers to Elaine as “the Asian girl” despite Charlyne Yi having mixed heritage. Not only do such derogatory jokes erase multiracial identities, they also flatten Asian people into caricatures. Perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised, however; Jexi writers and directors Jon Lucas and Scott Moore are also responsible for the offensive Chinese character of Mr. Chow in their previous film trilogy, The Hangover.

Mediaversity Grade: D 2.42/5

Given its lackluster script and jokes without regard for marginalized communities, it isn’t surprising that Jexi currently sits at an embarrassing Rotten Tomatoes score of 19%. Romantic comedies can be a welcome distraction from the realities of daily life but audiences want to see more diversity on screen. Although Jexi ticks some small diversity boxes, such as expanding the demographics of its supporting cast, it misses the mark on many other fronts.

Like Jexi? Try these other silly comedies.

Grade: DLiOctober 10, 2019