Dearly Departed
2021 · 10m · USA
Directed by Ester Song Kim
Genres: dark comedy, drama
Tones: absurdist, dark, darkly comic
Brent is trying to grieve his girlfriend Shauna's suicide — except she did it with her ex-boyfriend, which complicates the eulogy considerably. Grief curdles into cringe in a register that refuses to behave.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Most grief shorts beg you to feel sad. Kim's makes you feel sad AND complicit in laughing — a meaner, better trick.
Grief comedy whose punchline is that the deceased was actively cheating mid-suicide — Solondz on a softer day, Ester Song Kim threading the needle without losing the wince. Hard to land; she lands it.
A grief comedy whose central premise is that the girlfriend died mid-affair is a high-wire act that needs precise tonal control — Ester Song Kim's framing of cringe-as-grief is bold if she lands the eulogy.
Reviews
A painfully dark comedy about being blindsided by someone you thought you knew. It's a fine line between funny and nightmarish, and Kim boldly maneuvers within absurd levels of pathos and cringe.