On the Rocks
2022 · 18m · USA
Directed by Patrick Hickman
Tones: humorous, melancholic
A mismatched group of barflies in a Los Angeles dive navigate the awkward, shaky terrain of modern love and dating. Over the course of a single night, their intersecting attempts at connection turn into a wry ensemble portrait of romantic misfires.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
It's competent ensemble comedy in a dive bar, which is exactly the kind of well-trodden territory that usually puts me to sleep—and it mostly does, even with the parallel-narrative framing trying to feel clever about romantic failure.
Hickman threads multiple romantic vignettes through a single location with real compositional discipline, and there's something formally satisfying about how the bar becomes a living cross-section of contemporary dating anxiety—the kind of structural clarity that rewards close attention.
The film's real move is how it lets the bar's ambient noise and the specific rhythm of overlapping conversations do the heavy lifting; rather than punch up the comedy, it trusts the awkwardness of people talking past each other in a crowded room to carry the melancholy.
Festivals
- FEEDBACK Comedy Film Festival 2021