Vape
2016 · 10m · USA
Directed by Doron Max Hagay
Tones: absurdist, darkly comic, humorous
A repressed LA realtor discovers the vaping world via a charismatic mechanic and gets pulled into a cloud-chasing subculture while the housing market sputters around her. It plays itself completely straight, which is the whole joke.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A movie that out-deadpans the joke it's telling — Shelly inhales the lifestyle like it's a religion and nobody on screen cracks. That commitment is the entire bit and I'm here for it.
Doron Max Hagay plays the vaping subculture with the deadpan reverence of a lifestyle PSA — a repressed realtor pulled into cloud-chasing while the housing market sputters. American Honey's framework applied to a much weirder economy.
Treating the vaping subculture with the deadpan reverence of a lifestyle PSA, while a repressed LA realtor gets pulled into cloud-chasing — playing it completely straight is the joke and the discipline.
Reviews
It's a mocking and yet deeply alluring PSA for the vaping lifestyle, remaining completely serious in the face of its own ridiculousness.