Jexi

Jexi

Starring Adam Devine, Alexandra Shipp, Rose Byrne, Michael Pena

Directed by Jon Lucas & Scott Moore

The Story:
Phil (Adam Devine) is your typical modern young guy, who grew up with cell phones and is now permanently attached to one as an adult.  He works for an Internet list company making up stupid top ten lists instead of his dream job as a journalist, and spends all his free time home alone with Netflix and ordering out.  When his phone breaks, he immediately gets the newest model, but discovers that its operating system called Jexi (voiced by Rose Byrne) is defective, and she seems to have a human side to her that sets out to make Phil's life better through constant berating and belittling, as she controls all his social media, bank accounts, and everything in-between.

With Jexi's help, Phil expands his horizons and makes real friends, including Cate (Alexandra Shipp), who he grows feelings for.  The two begin to connect and date, and Phil finds himself leaving his phone home more and more, making Jexi jealous and angry.  While at first she set out to make his life better, she's now become attracted to him and will stop at nothing to make herself the only thing Phil needs, no matter what.

The Synopsis:
Everyone who's older likes to make fun of the current generation and the things that really take up most of their time, and this generation there's a lot to make fun of about - but especially is their dependency on technology, and most noticeably their cell phones.  You can't go down the street without seeing people (young and old, mind you) on their phones, and they even let their little children use them to keep them quiet, and it's obviously one of the country's biggest time-wasters.  It separates us from others, isolates us (while at the same time also giving us a false sense of popularity due to the social media apps), and makes us completely dependent on it for our everyday needs.  So of course it was just a matter of time before someone took this concept and turned into into a full-fledged comedic film.

Many may think this is reference to "Her," released in 2013, where a loner (played by Joaquin Phoenix) falls in love with his artificial intelligence partner, Samantha (voiced by Scarlett Johansson).  The film was well-received and earned several award nominations and win for writer/director Spike Jonze for Best Original Screenplay, and added another eclectic character to Phoenix's wide-ranging repertoire.  However, "Jexi" doesn't follow in those footsteps, but rather takes several steps back in its final product, a film that's surprisingly only 84 minutes long, but had to be written and directed by two people whose humor was already outdated and possibly could've passed for a laugh-track induced sketch on "SNL," but not for a full-fledged production.

The film follows typical millennial Phil, who leads your most traditional millennial life - lives alone in a one-bedroom apartment, works at a dead-end job, spends any free time alone watching Netflix, and uses his phone for everything.  It's a cliche within a cliche (a clicheception, if you will), and is so padded with stereotypes and tropes that you'd think it was written by a first-year college student who realized it was due at midnight and it's 11:55 pm - but not by two people who also wrote actually comedic films like "Bad Moms."

Anyway, Phil's phone breaks, and he gets a new one with a new operating software that goes haywire, and seems to get a mind of her own.  This software calls herself Jexi, and tells Phil that she's there to make his life better - by continually making fun of him and treating him like crap.  In a case of strange tough love, this helps Phil break out of his shell and do some normal human things, like beginning a relationship with Cate, which of course now angers Jexi because she's grown feelings for the loser loner, and instead of trying to fix his life, now wants to destroy it.

Adam Devine is a fine comedic actor when he's around a group of people (or even one), but when he steps out on his own, we discover that he can be really annoying and irritating, and "Jexi" proves that.  He remains one-note and plays the dimwitted fool well, but that's not a compliment.  Alexandra Shipp has been in many films this year, and this one seems to be the one where she forgot she signed the contract to star in, and just breezed in due to her obligations.  Only Rose Byrne is entertaining as the A.I. voice Jexi, and even she becomes grating before it all ends (if you want to hear Byrne do well, check out the Netflix film "I Am Mother" instead).  The less I can say about Michael Pena's wannabe mixture of Mark Zuckerberg and Michael Scott the better, and Wanda Sykes gives some of the chuckle-worthy moments as the no-nonsense cell phone seller.  Apart from a few moments, I found myself sitting in pure silence in the theater - not good for what's supposed to be a comedy.

The story itself doesn't mix well with the comedy genre, as Jexi becomes more deranged and determined to destroy Phil's life, her actions borderline on the horror as she uses Phil's bank account, social media, and other technological devices to make his life a living hell.  The story itself here could've been so much better if it was able to branch out more, but it remained very limited (probably because if it was released to its own devices, Jexi could've ended Phil's life in seconds) - and the less said about the abrupt and utterly pointless ending the better.  The best thing I can say about the ending is that it comes, albeit a lot longer than the supposed 84 minute runtime would suggest.

The Summary:
In an unintentional way, "Jexi" does indeed play to our current world climate about our dependency on our phones, because we'll be staring at our little screens while the film plays in the background due to its complete ineptitude to deliver any laughs whatsoever.

The Score: D-