Ivan Kander
I’m an admitted lover of two-handers: it’s a type of film that works uniquely well in the realm of shorts, usually logistically simple to produce, focusing on just two characters in, often, minimal locations…the sort of low-budget creative limitations that can be the be fuel for great original filmmaking. How much can you convey about two characters in a single brief moment?
We Should Get Dinner from directors Lexi Tannenholtz and Eliza Jiménez Cossio is a two-hander that really sings: simple, yes, but sharply written and well-performed, featuring two actor/comedians (Cossio, who also stars, and Anthony Oberbeck) who I’ve been following in the alt-comedy scene for quite some time. Oberbeck and Cossio nail the comedic timing of this awkward interaction. And, the dialogue escalates smartly and economically, undulating from polite niceties to “real” character-driven things, all culminating in a terrific slapstick comedy climax where ostensibly throwaway lines of dialogue end up paying off in delightful ways: Chekhov’s full bladder shall we call it?
“Once on set, we both wore a few different hats: Lexi directing, producing, and sweating a lot; Eliza acting, directing, and sweating a lot” – the directorial pair explain their approach to production
But, beyond the well-timed comedic dialogue and escalation, We Should Get Dinner is focusing on an interesting relationship dynamic that hasn’t been explored much on screen: that of step-siblings, tied together through marriage but not blood. It brings up a somewhat philosophical idea: what makes family, “family”? What are the obligations we have to those we are, essentially, arbitrarily connected to? Two-handers are so often focused on romantic relationships, so I like that this finds something different to mine in order to fuel its awkward drama.
As Cossio and Tannenholtz explain:
“In society, we understand that people fall out of your life in romantic contexts — but what about friends and family? What do we have to say to those people that were once so important to us, if anything at all? From there, we decided to focus on this oddly unique relationship of two ex-step-siblings to explore the very weird thing that happens when two people have different ideas of each other.”
Tannenholtz and Cossio, working with their DP Christine Ng, manage to play with the visuals. A restaurant setting is common fodder for this kind of short, but there is an elongated 4-minute circular dolly sequence (using what the directors refer to affectionately as “the smallest circle dolly track in the history of the world”) that is executed with aplomb, both from a technical standpoint and via the sharp performances. It gives the film a much-needed visual spark, especially when the set-up so naturally lends itself to standard shot/reverse-shot filmmaking.
We Should Get Dinner had a solid festival run (screenings include SXSW, Tall Grass, Aspen, and Palm Springs ShortFest). Tannenholtz is currently producing a feature film called Booger written and directed by Mary Dauterman (a prolific short filmmaker in her own right), while Cossio writes on Taika Waititi’s Our Flag Means Death as well as Hulu’s This Fool.