Nerdly » ‘We Need to Talk’ Review

01st Jun2022

‘We Need to Talk’ Review

by Phil Wheat

Stars: James Maslow, Emily Bett Rickards, Christel Khalil, Johnathan Fernandez, Tray Chaney | Written and Directed by Todd Wolfe

We have an interesting history with video game movies here at Nerdly. You see, back in 2013 when Nerdly was just a [now non-existant] YouTube show and Blogomatic3000 was still around (the site BEFORE this site) I decided to go all-in on the name Nerdly and close down my original site… And Nerdly was rebooted with a review of noobz, a movie about a bunch of noob gamers entering an esports tournament. And since then I tried to keep my hand into any video game adjacent titles that come our way – from documentaries like From Bedrooms to Billions to comedies like Grandma’s Boy and this film, We Need To Talk…

We Need To Talk follows Scott, a self-absorbed online video-game influencer, who speaks to millions of fans every day, but simply cannot (or will not) communicate with the people he loves. He remains blissfully unaware that he’s the problem until one morning, as she’s walking out the door, his girlfriend Aly tells him, “we need to talk.” Her comment sends Scott spiralling into a day-long tailspin as he seeks wisdom, advice, and emotional support from his social media network of friends, internet trolls, and a myriad of online characters from around the world.

Let’s get this out of the way first, for a film called We Need To Talk, a lot more time should have been spent NOT talking. There’s far too much whining, complaining and moaning from the central character Scott – who is not a likeable character to begin with; so to see him in this predicament is more amusing than sympathetic. I get that writer/director Todd Wolfe was aiming for a self indulgent “man-child” character a la Billy Madison and Tommy Boy, but both of those characters were still likeable. Scott is not.

Unfortunately for video game movie fans who’ve enjoyed films like The Wizard, the aforementioned Noobs, etc., unlike similar video game adjacent movies, We Need To Talk is less about the culture of going and more a cliched generic romantic comedy. The film does feature a main character who IS an online gamer, who makes YouTube (though they never call it YouTube) videos on the subject but Scott is an example of the worst of those kinds of people: so arrogant that he believes his own hype. Which is what gets him into trouble in the first place… And people like that, as many would attest, deserve everything they get.

We do get cameos from other online gaming personalities, including Clementinator, DubDotDUBBY, Secret_LeonGids, GlitterXplosion, HipHopGamer, AlexER and FroKnowsPhoto, to try and give We Need To Talk the gaming kudos it feels it needs but then it still feels like a desperate attempt at appealing to a particular audience. An audience that probably won’t appreciate the film anyway given that there’s not enough gaming in the film in the first place! Of course, those that aspire to this lifestyle will probably use the film as a template – big mistake!

To be fair, the reason I wanted to check out We Need To Talk, outside the fact it was supposedly set in the world of gaming, was the appearance of Arrow’s Emily Bett Rickards. However, those doing the same will be disappointed. Rickards’ role is more of an extended cameo than a meaty role – her character only appears towards the end of the film even though she’s talked about throughout the movie! However, she does bring a LOT to the film, clearly outshining every other member of the cast in the meagre amount of screen time she was given. Which is a credit to her but then makes the film overall look even more amateur.

For anyone looking for a gaming comedy, We Need To Talk is not it. You want a sappy romantic drama with a dislikable central character? Then We Need To Talk has your back.