Film review: That Awkward Moment

Features a few cheeky gags, but it's a challenge to warm to a film with boorish protagonists.

From left, Miles Teller, Michael B Jordan and Zac Efron in That Awkward Moment. AP Photo / Focus Features, Nicole Rivelli
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That Awkward Moment Director: Tom Gormican Starring: Zac Efron, Miles Teller, Michael B Jordan ⋆⋆

Zac Efron buries his squeaky-clean Disney past forever with this cheerfully rude but otherwise charmless romcom from the first-time writer-director Tom Gormican. Efron plays Jason, a twentysomething designer for a trendy New York book publisher, who enjoys a playboy life of endless late nights and shallow short-term dates. When his married friend Mikey (Michael B Jordan) splits from his wife, Jason and fellow designer Daniel (Miles Teller) make a three-way pact to all stay single together. But their plan soon unravels as all three are tempted into serious romances, with kooky Ellie (Imogen Poots) winning Jason’s heart. That Awkward Moment features a few cheeky gags and witty observations, but it is hard to warm to any film whose protagonists come over as boorish, self-satisfied jerks surrounded by one-dimensional female fantasy figures.