Seven Rings
2023 · 10m · USA
Directed by Matt Nelsen
Tones: humorous, melancholic, tender
A mustached sad-sack lugs seven engagement rings from seven failed engagements to NYC to pawn them. He bumps into his high school ex and tries to walk-and-talk his way back into something resembling love.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Seven failed engagements is a number that does more narrative lifting than most feature scripts. The premise alone is delicious; the 1980s-divorced-dad energy seals it.
Sweet Bujalski-Swanberg walkabout premise, but seven failed engagements as both prop and gentle joke sits comfortably inside indie-rom-com convention rather than testing it.
Seven rings as both prop and recurring joke about a man who proposes-and-doesn't-learn — that's a clean structural conceit. Walk-and-talk rom-com territory rises and falls on chemistry, and I can't gauge that from the page.
Reviews
A perfectly awkward romantic comedy