Watch Maybe with your certainty

Or even if you’re not certain about the person. This won’t push them any closer to “maybe” status, and in fact, could push them toward that certainty. Or, I should say, push you toward that certainty, since you’re the one making the suggestion.

Okay, maybe watching a movie is not the way to go on Valentine’s Day, if you are truly trying to woo someone and convince them of your capacity for grand romantic gestures. But maybe they don’t like grand romantic gestures. Maybe this small one is just the ticket.

Always Be My Maybe was one of the true delights of 2019, the kind of movie I would have loved to get higher on my chart just because it’s the kind of old-fashioned romantic escapism we once loved, in an up-to-the-moment package. It landed at #29, which is still pretty high praise on a list that contained 146 titles.

My wife and I never do much more than watch a movie to celebrate Valentine’s Day, in part because she’s never really fancied grand romantic demonstrations, at least those that conform to the Hallmark parameters of this holiday, and in part because it’s only five days before her birthday. So we will, indeed, be watching Always Be My Maybe tonight, her for the first time.

I hope you don’t need a sell job on the movie, since you have Netflix and probably had the movie’s trailer start playing for you automatically when you lingered on it once in the selection list. Netflix needs to increase the time it takes to start playing the trailer when you linger, but that’s a subject for another day.

For today, Valentine’s Day, I invite you simply to turn on this very funny, very sweet story of two young(ish) Americans of different Asian ancestry (he’s Korean, she’s Vietnamese, though actress Ali Wong is actually of Chinese-Vietnamese descent) as they try to figure out if they are more than just friends. There’s also an incredible cameo, as discussed in a roundabout fashion (though you probably are already aware of it) several times on this blog.

Oh, and if you are just allergic to romance entirely, you could still watch it for the humorous songs of the in-movie band, Hello Peril, fronted by Wong’s co-lead, Randall Park. One of them relates to the cameo, but the others are funny too.

It’s easy because it’s on Netflix, and if you haven’t seen it already, you’re behind the times. So get on that, and have yourself a very happy Valentine’s Day.