The Idea of a You
2022 · 10m · USA
Directed by Kailee McGee
Tones: humorous, melancholic, tender
Two friends crash a comedian's new apartment for an evening that mutates into a hothouse of attention-seeking, lusting, and catharsis. Three L.A. artists circle each other while pretending it's just a hang.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Three L.A. creatives in a room performing intimacy at each other — that's either insufferable or surgical, and McGee seems to know it's both. I'm in for the cringe.
Self-referential L.A. artist navel-gazing that owns the navel-gazing is at least honest, but Swanberg-apartment-mumblecore is a saturated lane. Calibration-dependent.
L.A.-artist navel-gazing about a comedian's new couch turning into an attention-seeking hothouse is a thin premise carried by performances; the self-aware ownership of the cliche is the saving grace. Could land or feel airless.
Reviews
a self-referential portrait of the lives and romantic inclinations of three L.A. artists / filmmakers / actors