Nothing Co.
2014 · 16m · Spain
Directed by Caye Casas, Albert Pintó
Genres: comedy, fantasy, satire
Tones: absurdist, darkly comic, whimsical
After years of failed job hunting, Carlos lands a job at a company called NOTHING that pays him to do strictly nothing all day — and his life is turned upside down.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A job where you literally do nothing and it somehow ruins your life—that's the kind of premise that makes everyone else nervous, which is exactly why it works. Casas and Pintó swing for the fences with absurdist logic that actually *means* something about labor and meaning, and they nail the tonal whiplash between comedy and quiet dread.
The film's debt to Buñuel and mid-century absurdist cinema is evident in its formal restraint, letting the deadpan mise-en-scène do the philosophical heavy lifting rather than underline the satire with aggressive editing or score.
The genius move here is the restraint in performance—Carlos's mounting bewilderment playing against a workplace that remains utterly, mundanely normal—and it's that single tonal choice that transforms what could be a one-joke premise into something genuinely unsettling.