Hardware
2019 · 10m · USA
Directed by Stephen Jacobson
Genres: dark comedy, drama
Tones: absurdist, humorous, melancholic
An amateur electronic-drum hobbyist hauls himself to a housewares trade show, convinced this is where he'll find the business partner who'll change his life.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
There's a whole subgenre of films about deluded entrepreneurs, but most of them mock from above. Jacobson stays at eye level with the cheesy drum-loop sincerity — that's the harder move.
An electronic-drum hobbyist stakes everything on a housewares trade show — Jacobson's drum-machine-as-emotional-arc gambit is endearing but the formal premise feels stretched. Tim Robinson commits more aggressively to less.
An amateur electronic-drum hobbyist staking his entire emotional arc on cheesy drum-machine beats and a housewares trade show — the absurd-earnest mismatch IS the form. Light page copy, but the specificity of the premise tells me Jacobson knows what he's making.
Reviews
an out-there drama/comedy about a desperate man in search of opportunity, bolstered by cheesy drumbeats and awkwardly earnest performances