Damage
2019 · 10m · USA
Directed by Matt Porter
Tones: darkly comic, melancholic, tender
Mitch and Emma's breakup is interrupted by a stranger who shows up to buy Mitch's bass amp. What should take ten minutes drags into something far more uncomfortable — and far more honest.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
The breakup-interrupted-by-Craigslist-buyer device is so dumb it loops back to brilliant. Watch what happens when a stranger forces two people to stop lying.
Matt Porter hijacks a breakup with a Craigslist amp pickup and lets the awkward third party do the truth-telling — a Hong Sang-soo conceit run through Brooklyn naturalism. Pitch-perfect ensemble work.
A breakup hijacked by a Craigslist bass-amp buyer — Matt Porter's premise turns the awkward intruder into the accidental truth-teller, and pitch-perfect performances are exactly what this one-room conceit demands.
Reviews
An ingeniously devised comedy with pitch perfect performances; Eastman's closing monologue is one of the finest pieces of 'fine line between funny and sad' acting you'll ever see.