NYC Tips and Tricks
2022 · 10m · USA
Directed by Amber Schaefer
Tones: absurdist, darkly comic, melancholic
A time-travel vlogger's chipper Coney Island tour gets hijacked when his kid needs to be picked up from school with lice. Fatherhood and the algorithm refuse to coexist.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Time travel collides with a lice call from school, which is the funniest possible argument against the creator economy. Schaefer knows the joke is rarely the joke.
A time-travel vlogger derailed by his kid's lice — the chipper-influencer-meets-actual-life premise is good for one strong joke. The SNL Digital Short with a soul comparison feels honest, both the asset and the ceiling.
Playing the time-travel-vlogger premise absolutely straight while the actual stakes collapse into a lice pickup — that's the joke working at two registers at once. Schaefer's commitment to the chipper Coney Island tour grammar while it crumbles is the kind of structural gag I'm here for.
Reviews
Pinpoints the plight of the artist with absurdity and spontaneous comic detail.