# Someone Great (film)
**Someone Great** is a 2019 American romantic comedy written and directed by Jennifer Kaytin Robinson and released by Netflix, starring [Gina Rodriguez](https://www.edgepedia.org/gina-rodriguez) as a music journalist who spends one last day in New York City with her two best friends after a breakup, before moving to San Francisco for her dream job.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/someone_great) Critics and the director herself have described it less as a conventional rom-com than a film about female friendship and choosing one's own career.[2](https://www.newyorker.com/recommends/watch/someone-great-the-rom-com-thats-really-an-ode-to-female-friendship)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Release | Netflix streaming premiere, April 19, 2019; 92 minutes; rated R for language, drug content, drinking, and sexual material[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/someone_great) |
| Writer-director | Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, creator of MTV's *Sweet/Vicious*, in her feature directorial debut[3](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/someone-great-2019) |
| Main cast | Gina Rodriguez (Jenny), Brittany Snow (Blair), DeWanda Wise (Erin), LaKeith Stanfield (Nate)[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/someone_great) |
| Premise | After her boyfriend of nine years ends the relationship, music journalist Jenny rallies her two best friends for one last outrageous adventure in New York before moving to San Francisco[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/someone_great) |
| Production | Feigco Entertainment and Likely Story, with Rodriguez producing via her I Can and I Will Productions; shot in New York in March 2018[4](https://about.netflix.com/en/news/golden-globe-winner-gina-rodriguez-to-star-in-someone-great) • [5](https://www.productionlist.com/production/someone-great) |
| Reception | 84% on the Rotten Tomatoes Tomatometer (51 reviews); Metascore of 63 on Metacritic, "generally favorable"[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/someone_great) • [6](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/someone-great/critic-reviews/) |
| Signature music | Soundtrack built around Lizzo's "Truth Hurts," Lorde's "Supercut," and songs by Mitski and Phoebe Bridgers; titled after an LCD Soundsystem song[7](https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2019/04/23/netflix-rom-com-someone-great-is-good-soundtrack-is-even-better/) • [8](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/someone-great/someone-great-is-a-mediocre-indie-movie-with-a-ste) |
## Spoilers
### Plot and themes
Jenny Young (Gina Rodriguez) is a driven writer who lands her dream job at *Rolling Stone* in San Francisco. The news finally breaks her crumbling nine-year relationship with Nate Davis ([LaKeith Stanfield](https://www.edgepedia.org/lakeith-stanfield)), who does not want a long-distance arrangement. To help her cope, she brings together Blair ([Brittany Snow](https://www.edgepedia.org/brittany-snow)) and Erin ([DeWanda Wise](https://www.edgepedia.org/dewanda-wise)), longtime companions from her past, and the three treat her heartbreak with alcohol, substances, and a show, while much of the day goes toward hunting for entry to a festival called the Neon Classic.[3](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/someone-great-2019) • [2](https://www.newyorker.com/recommends/watch/someone-great-the-rom-com-thats-really-an-ode-to-female-friendship)
The film opens where most romantic comedies end, after the couple has already split, and interlaces the day in New York with flashbacks to Jenny and Nate's relationship.[2](https://www.newyorker.com/recommends/watch/someone-great-the-rom-com-thats-really-an-ode-to-female-friendship) Robinson has said she set out to write a romantic comedy rooted in self-love, replacing the usual "girl gets boy, girl loses boy, girl gets boy back" structure with "girl gets boy, girl loses boy, girl chooses herself and her career."[9](https://repositorio.ucp.pt/bitstream/10400.14/37170/1/202731065.pdf) For Jenny, not moving to San Francisco is never an option; the New Yorker's Saira Khan, a former member of the magazine's editorial staff, read this as Robinson taking the character's ambitions seriously where older films would have framed a career-obsessed woman as someone who could only be happy once she settled for a man.[2](https://www.newyorker.com/recommends/watch/someone-great-the-rom-com-thats-really-an-ode-to-female-friendship)
**Friendship as the love story.** Several critics identified the bonds between the three women, rather than a new romance, as the film's emotional center. RogerEbert.com's Monica Castillo wrote that the feel-good relationship at the heart of the movie is found in the friendship, and that the title does not refer to a person.[3](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/someone-great-2019) Time's Stephanie Zacharek wrote that the "someone great" of the title is each of the three women, bringing out the best in one another.[10](https://time.com/5573543/someone-great-netflix-review/) The casting was also noted for its diversity: Jenny is Latina, Erin and Nate are Black, and Blair is white, and the film includes two interracial relationships neither of which involves a white person, which Khan called a rarity in Hollywood films.[2](https://www.newyorker.com/recommends/watch/someone-great-the-rom-com-thats-really-an-ode-to-female-friendship)
## Production
Netflix announced the film on February 27, 2018, with Golden Globe winner Gina Rodriguez starring and Jennifer Kaytin Robinson, creator of MTV's *Sweet/Vicious*, writing and directing in her feature debut. [Paul Feig](https://www.edgepedia.org/paul-feig) and [Jessie Henderson](https://www.edgepedia.org/jessie-henderson) produced for Feigco Entertainment, Anthony Bregman and Peter Cron for Likely Story, and Rodriguez produced through her shingle I Can and I Will Productions.[4](https://about.netflix.com/en/news/golden-globe-winner-gina-rodriguez-to-star-in-someone-great) Principal photography took place in New York, NY, in March 2018.[5](https://www.productionlist.com/production/someone-great)
Robinson has said the film was inspired in part by her own heartbreak.[2](https://www.newyorker.com/recommends/watch/someone-great-the-rom-com-thats-really-an-ode-to-female-friendship) Cinematographer Autumn Eakin shot the movie, using the bright pink and white of stylish apartments and the neon and jewel tones of New York nightlife; flashbacks to the relationship are in soft focus, like idealized old romances, while scenes with the friends use sharp focus.[3](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/someone-great-2019) • [10](https://time.com/5573543/someone-great-netflix-review/) Cameos include RuPaul, Rosario Dawson, Jaboukie Young-White, and [Questlove](https://www.edgepedia.org/questlove).[3](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/someone-great-2019)
## Soundtrack
Music runs through both the story and the film's reception, since Jenny is a music writer and Robinson herself worked as a music journalist for the website Pigeons & Planes in her early twenties.[7](https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2019/04/23/netflix-rom-com-someone-great-is-good-soundtrack-is-even-better/) The opening montage of the relationship is set to Lorde's "Supercut," and a kitchen dance scene uses Lizzo's "Truth Hurts," which Robinson chose as "a little bit of a middle finger to the world, on behalf of Jenny and women."[2](https://www.newyorker.com/recommends/watch/someone-great-the-rom-com-thats-really-an-ode-to-female-friendship) • [7](https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2019/04/23/netflix-rom-com-someone-great-is-good-soundtrack-is-even-better/) [Instrumental](https://www.edgepedia.org/instrumental) backing from three [Phoebe Bridgers](https://www.edgepedia.org/phoebe-bridgers) songs ("Motion Sickness," "Scott Street," and "Killer") was originally a temporary score that Robinson kept and cleared with the singer, and Mitski's music scores the film's most heart-wrenching stretch.[7](https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2019/04/23/netflix-rom-com-someone-great-is-good-soundtrack-is-even-better/)
The title comes from the [LCD Soundsystem](https://www.edgepedia.org/lcd-soundsystem) song "Someone Great," from 2007's *Sound of Silver*, about accepting loss. James Murphy denied requests to use the band's songs in the film, but Easter eggs appear throughout, including a neon sign at a concert venue reading "Where Are Your Friends Tonight," one of the band's lyrics.[7](https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2019/04/23/netflix-rom-com-someone-great-is-good-soundtrack-is-even-better/) • [8](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/someone-great/someone-great-is-a-mediocre-indie-movie-with-a-ste) Paste Magazine's Ellen Johnson called the film most memorable for its music.[8](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/someone-great/someone-great-is-a-mediocre-indie-movie-with-a-ste)
## Reception
On Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an 84% Tomatometer from 51 reviews, with the critics consensus reading that what it lacks in originality it makes up for in relatability and charm, thanks to the chemistry between its leads; the audience Popcornmeter stands at 64% from more than 500 ratings.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/someone_great) Metacritic assigned a Metascore of 63, with 9 positive, 6 mixed, and 0 negative reviews among the 15 counted.[6](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/someone-great/critic-reviews/)
Reviewers repeatedly singled out the three leads. [The Playlist](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-playlist)'s Lena Wilson called it "a heartfelt and hilarious first feature with ample female talent," while noting an overdependence on neon lighting and more alcohol consumption than seemed responsible for a film likely watched by teen girls and young women.[6](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/someone-great/critic-reviews/) Critics at Variety, The New York Times, and RogerEbert.com agreed that the characters sometimes lean on caricature but that Rodriguez, Snow, and Wise have enough chemistry to carry the film.[6](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/someone-great/critic-reviews/) • [3](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/someone-great-2019) Time placed the film in the lineage of *Sex and the City*, writing that it honors that show's frankness about how women talk when they are truly close while better reflecting the racial diversity of New York friendships.[10](https://time.com/5573543/someone-great-netflix-review/) Midwest Film Journal's Aly Caviness called it "a stealth anti-romcom" and Netflix's contribution to the genre's women-led resurgence.[1](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/someone_great)
The film has remained available on Netflix by subscription, including the ad-supported tier, as of late 2026.[11](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/someone-great)
## References
1. [Someone Great, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/someone_great)
2. ["Someone Great," a Rom-Com That's Really an Ode to Female Friendship, The New Yorker (Saira Khan, September 25, 2019)](https://www.newyorker.com/recommends/watch/someone-great-the-rom-com-thats-really-an-ode-to-female-friendship)
3. [Someone Great movie review & film summary, RogerEbert.com (Monica Castillo, April 19, 2019)](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/someone-great-2019)
4. [Golden Globe Winner Gina Rodriguez to star in Someone Great, About Netflix (February 27, 2018)](https://about.netflix.com/en/news/golden-globe-winner-gina-rodriguez-to-star-in-someone-great)
5. [Someone Great, Production List, Film & Television Industry Alliance](https://www.productionlist.com/production/someone-great)
6. [Someone Great critic reviews, Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/someone-great/critic-reviews/)
7. [The Netflix rom-com 'Someone Great' is good. But the soundtrack is even better., The Washington Post (Sonia Rao, April 23, 2019)](https://www.washingtonpost.com/arts-entertainment/2019/04/23/netflix-rom-com-someone-great-is-good-soundtrack-is-even-better/)
8. [Someone Great Is an Okay Indie Movie with a Stellar Indie Soundtrack, Paste Magazine (Ellen Johnson, April 25, 2019)](https://www.pastemagazine.com/movies/someone-great/someone-great-is-a-mediocre-indie-movie-with-a-ste)
9. [Thesis citing Robinson on writing Someone Great, Universidade Católica Portuguesa repository](https://repositorio.ucp.pt/bitstream/10400.14/37170/1/202731065.pdf)
10. [Review: In Someone Great, Gina Rodriguez and Friends Find More Than Sex in the City, Time (Stephanie Zacharek, April 18, 2019)](https://time.com/5573543/someone-great-netflix-review/)
11. [Someone Great streaming: where to watch online, JustWatch](https://www.justwatch.com/us/movie/someone-great)
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Comedy and romantic films (individual works) › Comedies of 2019 to 2020 › Released in 2019*
*Initially written Sep 17, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license