Fix: Rom-com, wedding dates, awkward humor, friends-to-lovers, fake dating
Platforms:Hulu
Hulu Summary:
Long-time friends Alice and Ben agree to be one another’s plus ones as they power through an endless parade of insufferable weddings.
FYA Summary:
Alice and Ben are of the age at which everyone they know is getting married. They’ve been buds through high school and college, so they have all the same friends, and they’ve got a long year ahead of them attending one wedding after another. To make their wedding parade slightly less miserable, they decide to team up and be each other’s plus one for the upcoming nuptials. But with weddings comes plenty of champagne drinking, and carousing, and generally bad, emotionally-fueled decisions. And after one crazy night together (read: a hook up), their plan to be plus ones turns far more complicated than they ever imagined.
Familiar Faces:
Jack Quaid as Ben King
Jack Quaid, son of Meg Ryan and Dennis Quaid who looks infuriatingly exactly like both of his parents, plays Ben. You’ve probably seen Jack in The Boys or remember him from The Hunger Games movies. In Plus One he walks a fine line between charming cutie and insecure dickhead.
Maya Erskine as Alice Mori
If you’ve watched Pen15, you know the immature awkardness that Maya embodies. If you haven’t watched Pen15, you need to do so immediately. Alice Mori is exactly how you’d imagine grown up Maya from Pen15. She’s still immature and goofy, and she fluctuates between moments of bratty behavior and aloof coolness.
Anna Konkle as Jenna
It wouldn’t be a Maya Erskine project without a cameo from her Pen15 partner in crime slash best friend Anna Konkle. And a cameo is exactly what it is: Anna plays an old college frenemy that Alice runs into at one of her myriad weddings.
Ed Begley Jr. as Chuck
Ed plays Ben’s dad who is getting him into the family business. I’m not sure how else to describe Chuck other than being…you know, Ed Begley Jr. A man who has an IMDB filmography longer than a CVS receipt full of roles in which he basically just plays Ed Begley Jr.
Beck Bennett as Matt
SNL cast member Beck Bennett has a small part as Ben’s best guy friend (whose wedding is the first one Ben and Alice attend).
(Virtual) Couch-Sharing Capability: High
Plus One falls into a niche category of movies that I call “Trick Your Boyfriend Rom-Coms.” It’s a rom-com dressed up as an indie film. The shots are a little darker, the jokes a little dirtier, the sex scenes are more awkward. So if you have a significant other who refuses to watch Sweet Home Alabama with you one more time, you can turn this on and hopefully they won’t realize what it is until they’re already too invested.
Recommended Level of Inebriation: Cheers!
Drunkeness not required but it’s rude to attend a wedding and not cheers to the newlyweds, and this movie has a lot of newlyweds, so I recommend watching it with a bottle of champagne nearby. You know, for etiquette.
Use of Your Streaming Subscription: Filling the Palm Springs Hole in Your Heart
I’ve been chasing that Palm Springs high ever since watching the Andy Samberg wedding flick this summer. Plus One contains decidedly less quantum physics, but has the same repititious wedding theme and charming indie rom-com vibe as Palm Springs. Did I love it as much? No, but was it an enjoyable watch that left me feeling a little bit of a crush on both its stars? Yes.
