Shortcomings Screenplay

Adrian Tomine was born in 1974 in Sacramento, California. He began self-publishing his comic book series Optic Nerve when he was sixteen, and in 1994 he received an offer to publish from Drawn & Quarterly. His comics have been anthologized in publications such as McSweeney's, Best American Comics, and Best American Nonrequired Reading. Both his graphic novel Shortcomings and his memoir The Loneliness of the Long-Distance Cartoonist were named New York Times Notable Books of the year. Since 1999, Tomine has been a regular contributor to The New Yorker. He lives in Brooklyn with his wife and daughters.

“Randall Park’s film largely does justice to Tomine’s fraught and challenging story of dating mores in amultiracial society. Thanks to Tomine’s script, the film follows most of the book’s narrative beats, with cultural and political references brought up to date.” —The Nation“A character study that takes the good, the bad, and the ugly of someone and gives them to you with a series of chasers to ease the burn. Ben is someone defined by his shortcomings until he isn’t. The movie itself never comes up short.” —Rolling Stone“A hilariously cynical and angry exploration of the sexual politics of race.” —San Francisco Chronicle“Shortcomings, with its casual candor, is free from pressure to be outrageous about its characters’ sex lives. The film shows both Tomine and Park to be versatile as storytellers, and sets a new benchmark for graphic novel adaptations of its kind. One can only wish that our own worst moments might be captured with so much grace.” —LA Times