Short Film Showcase: 'We'll Find Something' Finds Humor and Humanity in Frustration
In "We'll Find Something," writer-director Casey Gooden takes an all too familiar scenario, endlessly searching for a restaurant, and wrings out some potent observations on the interplay between selfishness and compromise in relationships. Watch the 2015 SXSW film festival Grand Jury Prize nominee before we dig in.
Finding comedy in frustration is tricky. For the audience, the line between schadenfreude and their own annoyance is extremely thin. Oftentimes, humor depends on relief (check out this video for an easily digestible primer on the theory of comedy). A situation is presented that might lead to conflict, but then our expectations are upended leading to relief, which leads to laughter. However, in frustration comedy, similar to cringe comedy (The Office, Curb Your Enthusiasm), relief is delayed indefinitely and that delay triggers the humor response. Seinfeld excelled at this sort of situational humor, and while this short film never reaches the comedic heights of classic episodes like "The Chinese Restaurant" or "The Parking Garage," Gooden builds his comedy in a way that makes them feel like kindred spirits.
Steve (Shane Carruth) and Kendra (Amy Seimetz) are hungry for different things. From the moment we meet them, they are visibly annoyed with each other. Steve is sweaty and carrying some shopping bags, a lovely metaphor for the ex-lover baggage Kendra bugs him about for most of the film. Kendra's phone dies just as we come to realize that even in person they have trouble communicating. We are seeing this couple at their worst, and so they are hard to like, but likability in a character is overrated. They only need to be compelling. Its a real testament to the performances of Shane Carruth and Amy Seimetz that no matter how far their characters strayed into yuppie un-likability, that I was always engaged. To go back to my earlier point, their likability, or lack thereof, actually aids the comedy. We find a weird kind of pleasure from watching these two selfish yuppies constantly fail to get the relief they so desperately want.
This short confirms a long held belief of mine that one of the hardest parts of a relationship is figuring out what you should eat. Our nagging biological imperative can test a couple's mettle through constant ping-ponging exchanges of, "What do you want for dinner?" and, "I dunno, what about you?" The longer you go without eating, the more heightened your emotions become, and suddenly you're fighting about something that doesn't have anything to do with food. To avoid this descent, one or both parties must compromise. We all have selfish tendencies, but our willingness to undermine our own wants and desires in order to satisfy those of another is the mark of a healthy pairing. Suddenly, your own selfishness doesn't seem to matter as much. As people grow apart and their interests diverge, those small moments of compromise begin to feel much larger and harder to justify. Steve and Kendra are at a point in their relationship where they have started to drift apart. Kendra might leave for a job in Toronto without Steve, and Steve can't seem to let go of his ex. Their selfishness has begun to matter more than the other person. That is one of the main reasons I love this short. It captures the infuriating indecision of daily life. It illustrates how couplehood is often broken not by some large singular moment, but rather by a series of small annoyances stacked on top of each other.
"We'll Find Something" is a portrait of two people on the verge of a break-up. We never actually see it happen, but at the end, although they are physically closer than they had been in most of the film, their gaze is outward. They eat, but neither is really satisfied, and really, that is the point.
