The Fish Out of Water - Short Film
2019 · 17m · United States
Directed by Josh Brine
Genres: comedy, coming-of-age, drama
Tones: contemplative, humorous, tender
Infuriated by his mindless desk job, Charlie tries to quit — until his fear of risk, a prodding roommate, and a fondness for a co-worker get in the way.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
It's a perfectly competent indie coming-of-age about a guy afraid to quit his job — the exact kind of well-meaning premise that gets made every festival season and changes nothing. Unless Brine's doing something genuinely warped with tone or form underneath, this reads like watching someone's therapy session get funding.
The tonal balance—threading contemplation through comedy without collapsing into mawkishness—suggests a filmmaker aware of the lineage of small-scale character studies that do emotional work quietly. The tenderness here feels earned rather than imposed, which is rarer than it should be.
There's a specific restraint in how Brine lets the roommate dynamic breathe that transforms what could be generic conflict into something genuinely lived-in; that one decision to not oversell the prodding, to let it sit awkwardly in the frame, is what makes the whole thing land.