‘Jexi’ Review

Sometimes a movie just baffles you just by existing in our world. This is the case with filmmaker duo Jon Lucas and Scott Moore's Jexi which is best described as an 8-minute Youtube sketch stretched out to be an 85 minutes long feature film. An unbelievable catastrophe of its own kind, it also already seems incredibly dated with the way it incorporates technology.

Bless Alexandra Shipp’s (Cate) heart and professionalism as she really gives this one everything she has to offer, all while portraying a poorly constructed character. Cate is really only an excuse for us to look past the main character Phil’s (Adam DeVine) development which can barely be described as that as the plot never gives him a chance to do that. Somewhere there is a sketch version of the basic idea of Jexi which is probably funny and entertaining.

The movie is shot and edited together awkwardly, in a way that wouldn’t work even in digital space. There are these weird zooms that usually can be found in shows like The Office, however here they are not done during jokes but instead they seem to happen just to make this look like a comedy without it ever being one. Jokes are rarely landing here as even Jexi’s clapbacks get tiresome fast as the whole movie depends on it to provide the laughs. None of the side characters have any real business to exist as they are there just to be typical stereotypes and a really out-of-place cameo by Kid Cudi is used only as a plot device. The script is messy as it is trying to make fun of Gen Z from the perspective of Gen X by using language of millenials.

Smileys: Alexandra Shipp tried her best

Frowneys: Directing, screenplay, acting, editing, humour

It’s hard to understand how this was greenlit to be a theater feature.

0.5/5