Netflix: Review of MISSED CONNECTIONS: Messed-up Mix-ups

June 24, 2023

Mae (Miles Ocampo) was a t-shirt designer with an online business that was not doing that great. One day in the supermarket, she saw a boy wearing a green hoodie and thought he was cute. However, he suddenly disappeared when she was paying at the checkout counter.  She went on the "Missed Connections" app on her phone and as user Gingerhead, she posted a call "Looking for Kuya Green @Shopmart Grocery. "

Later that day, Mae saw a post on the same app entitled "Looking for Grocery Girl" by a guy named Pixelord, the same guy she saw earlier! He described the girl to be wearing a white shirt and carrying a tote bag, and Mae believed that she was her.  She replied and they got into texting each other on the app. He introduced himself as Norman (Kelvin Miranda), and he was just trying out the app for the first time.

The title "Missed Connections" referred to a fictional (?) online app where people post about strangers they encountered that day whom they liked, but just did not have the courage to introduce themselves to. Then, it was a waiting game, hoping against hope that that other person would also be on the app and respond to that random call. Of course, like what happened in the movie, it can be the wrong person who responds.

Orange-haired Mae was a carefree spirit, a hoarder with a messy house. She still had bull sessions with an imaginary version of her ex-boyfriend Mark (JC Santos). Shy, nerdy, with a French-crop hairstyle with straight bangs, Norman is a web designer, gamer and cosplay geek, a stickler for cleanliness and inexperienced with dating girls. Yet, here he was, pursuing a stylish popular hairdresser and influencer, Julia (Chie Filomeno).  

Mae and Norman were clearly a mismatched pair, and their conversations were always awkward. Mae was an obsessed stalker and an online basher, which are never cool, so it was not easy to sympathize with her situation. Miles Ocampo was trying too hard to be cute. Kelvin Miranda was trying too hard to be dorky. Director Jelise Chung tried her best to liven and lighten things up, but it was not easy for her to find that perfect balance. 4/10.