No romantic comedy has ever lived up to When Harry Met Sally. But if I had to suggest something that comes close, especially something recent, I'd say "Significant Others," a short film directed and written by Mike Bobrinskoy that premiered on YouTube 10 hours ago.
It's witty and heartfelt, and survives the embrace of several RomCom tropes to offer audiences a fresh take on modern love. It's a kind cultural critique reminiscent of Black Mirror and The Armando Iannucci Shows.
There's a familiarity to the four main characters, the couple-apparent who match on a dating app and their respective friends. The relationships, especially between the friends, are aspirational. We all wish we had a wingperson like them. Mike Bobrinskoy's character whose sultry stares and straight chest hair is intoxicating, offers advice to his tastefully tatted, lovable friend played by Taylor White. Immediately, Molly Kearney's character, a no-nonsense, everywoman with the temperament of a Bronx zookeeper from the 1980s, provides a retort to the appreciative, not-quite-ditzy woman-she-wish-babysat-me-as-a-kid, played by Sabeen Sadiq. The dialogue is eloquent, humorous, poetic, and doesn't miss a beat. And there's music to match-the score and speech merge as one narrative force. Ezra Furman: "Love You Sa Bad."
There's romantic tension. Partly between the two matches, but also between the two wingpeople, as they live vicariously through their friends (when will a dating app in which friends do the swiping and chatting for you---talking wing-person to wing-person--finally catch on?).
In fact, the sexual tension is contagious. I became attracted to the four stars. Laughing at times, a burgeoning pit in my stomach where nostalgia had released some flight-fight-or hormone, and my hand crept into my unbuttoned pants. There's a strange deterioration to the attractiveness to the two "matched" characters. But I feel transported to my adolescence. This film is 7 minutes in heaven.
It's witty and heartfelt, and survives the embrace of several RomCom tropes to offer audiences a fresh take on modern love. It's a kind cultural critique reminiscent of Black Mirror and The Armando Iannucci Shows.
There's a familiarity to the four main characters, the couple-apparent who match on a dating app and their respective friends. The relationships, especially between the friends, are aspirational. We all wish we had a wingperson like them. Mike Bobrinskoy's character whose sultry stares and straight chest hair is intoxicating, offers advice to his tastefully tatted, lovable friend played by Taylor White. Immediately, Molly Kearney's character, a no-nonsense, everywoman with the temperament of a Bronx zookeeper from the 1980s, provides a retort to the appreciative, not-quite-ditzy woman-she-wish-babysat-me-as-a-kid, played by Sabeen Sadiq. The dialogue is eloquent, humorous, poetic, and doesn't miss a beat. And there's music to match-the score and speech merge as one narrative force. Ezra Furman: "Love You Sa Bad."
There's romantic tension. Partly between the two matches, but also between the two wingpeople, as they live vicariously through their friends (when will a dating app in which friends do the swiping and chatting for you---talking wing-person to wing-person--finally catch on?).
In fact, the sexual tension is contagious. I became attracted to the four stars. Laughing at times, a burgeoning pit in my stomach where nostalgia had released some flight-fight-or hormone, and my hand crept into my unbuttoned pants. There's a strange deterioration to the attractiveness to the two "matched" characters. But I feel transported to my adolescence. This film is 7 minutes in heaven.