Andy Sambergrecently dipped into drama with 2024’sLeeand romantic comedy yearning with 2020’sPalm Springs. But his range should come at no surprise if you’ve seen the independent film that Samberg starred in alongsideRashida Jonesin 2012,Celeste and Jesse Forever.
Celeste and Jesse Forevertackles the eternal question: “Can you be friends with your ex?” with a twist, because these exes in questionwere co-dependent best friends before they even started dating.The film picks up six months after Jones' and Samberg’s characters—the titular Celeste and Jesse—have filed for divorce and separated. But you’d never know it by the way they still live together and vanish into inside jokes, as they’re totally in denial about their situation. It takesJesse learning that he’s gotten another woman pregnant to finally shake them looseand get them to work on themselves andreallyexamine what went wrong in their relationship. We all want to marry our best friend,but relationships often require more than that.
Samberg’s Not the Only Sitcom Star in ‘Celeste and Jesse Forever’
This is assuming you know Samberg primarily fromBrooklyn Nine-Nineand notSaturday Night Liveor films likeHot RodandPopstar: Never Stop Never Stopping. But not only is this movie aMike Schuruniverse crossover with Samberg and Jones fromParks and RecreationandThe Office. (Samberg was also in an episode ofParks). But you also haveChris Messina, indie darling and the male lead onThe Mindy Project,as well asAri Graynor, who was onBad Teacher; andEmma Roberts, who was arguably a teen sitcom star thanks toUnfabulous. These are some seriously funny people assembled for a soft indie that flexes their dramatic range.
The rest of the cast includesElijah Wood,Will McCormack,Rich Sommer,Eric Christian Olsen,Janel Parrish, and a hilarious blink-and-you-miss-it cameo fromChris Pine, who is listed in the credits as “Rory Shenandoah” played by “Kris Pino”… shine on you crazy diamond!
Some Humor Doesn’t Age Well in ‘Celeste and Jesse Forever’
Roberts' character Riley Banks—an up-and-coming pop star working with Celeste—drops a transphobic slur towards the end of the movie.It’s not intended to be an insult, but it’s a little jarring to remember how casually offensive even progressive-minded people were just over a decade ago.That’s the worst of it, however, as the rest is just sort of cringe.Celeste mentions gay people so much it feels like she just discovered that they exist. She complains that if she and Jesse were gay exes, nobody would care if they were friends. Andwhile it’s true that society can’t handle male/female friendships,if a same-sex couple broke up and acted like Celeste and Jesse at the beginning of the movie, their friends would definitely be concerned. When Jesse tells Celeste that he has something serious to tell her, Celeste guesses that he’s about to tell her he’s gay. “That would be so funny,” she insists. Quick, Celeste,what exactly would be funny about that?
Then, Celeste designs a logo for Riley that accidentally looks like a diagram of anal sex. It’s a scandal at first and then turns Riley into a gay icon. That’s not necessarily the characters being homophobic, but it does feel likethe writers, McCormack and Jones, could have had some better brainstorming sessions.There are a few moments where Woods' character Scott, who is gay himself, makes awkward or crude references to his sexuality. “You gotta integratethe gaybetter,” Celeste says to him. That sounds like a script note highlighting a problem inCeleste and Jesse Foreverthat they decided to lampshade by making it a joke.In retrospect, it probably would have worked better if Scott had said that to Celeste, and not the other way around.
‘Celeste and Jesse Forever’ Is an Indie Take On Rom-Com Clichés
In the 2010s, filmmakers were over formulaic romantic comedies and trying to find something different to say. Now,romance-loving cinephiles are desperate to return to form.Interestingly enough, it doesn’t completely avoid some romantic comedy touchstones from the era. Celeste is not unlike many an uptight workaholic heroine who needs a man to loosen up. And Jesse is, like so many romantic-comedy and sitcom men, a man-child who needs a woman to reform him. (See:Knocked Up,Failure to Launch,How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days,The Proposal, and pretty much everyHallmark Christmas movie.) Celeste is the one who wanted to get divorced, but Jesse is the one who moves on first. It’s a tale as old as time.
The 10 Best Andy Samberg Movies, Ranked
Never stop, never stopping!
But the film doesn’t fall into those pitfalls: it dives right into them and explores them.Romance doesn’t magically solve Celeste and Jesse’s problems—they don’t end up together. They figure out how to say goodbye and love each other from a distance; Jesse grows up and Celeste loosens up, buttheir path there is complicated and, not to mention, melancholic.Jones and Samberg’s natural acting sells this very well, and that’s often all you can ask for in a deconstructed romantic comedy like this. It’s flawed but very lovely,just like the characters themselves.
Celeste and Jesse Forever
