Shot On Film
2018 · 10m · USA
Directed by Whitmer Thomas
Tones: absurdist, humorous, melancholic
Two Brooklynites workshop a hypothetical TV show, picking apart cliches about gender, improv and the holy grail of shooting on celluloid. A third friend rots quietly in Philadelphia.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
The title is bait, the joke is on everyone who'd take the bait, and that includes me. Worth the trap.
Entirely improvised dialogue weaponized against the cliches of improvised dialogue is the recursive move that earns its mumblecore lineage — Swanberg eating his own tail. Self-aware in the right way.
Entirely improvised dialogue weaponized against the cliches of improvised dialogue, with Whitmer Thomas playing a problematic version of himself — meta-mumblecore eating its own tail. Mitra Jouhari is the secret weapon.
Reviews
A loose, self-aware comedy tackling insider cliches about improvised dialogue, gender representation, and shooting on film... adds complex layers of irony into off-the-cuff naturalism.