Ivan Kander
Maintaining friendships post-college is a challenge. Building new friendships can be even harder: the routine and structure of formal education no longer forces you into the same physical space as other people. And, so, it’s easy to watch “close” friends drift into the social media ether, becoming avatars on a timeline as opposed to a people you actually know on a close level.
All this to say, maintaining relationships—even platonic ones—is hard work, an idea that director Neal Suresh Mulani along with co-writer Kathryn Winn are exploring in their sharply executed, darkly comic Gen-Z chamber piece, Tell Me Something I Don’t Know. It’s a catty and acidic look at narcissism and toxic relationships, asking the question: what engenders us to one another? And, why do we feel beholden to maintain friendships rather than just letting them go? Can you “break up” with a friend? More to the point: should you?
The film is centered around a fun hook: a catty, self-centered guy, Cary (played by director Mulani), forces a group of friends to list everything they dislike about him. It’s all very cringey and acerbic, and I mean that in the best of ways. As we watch these narcissistic characters do bad things, it’s clear Mulani is mining his own personal insecurities and malignant traits and using them as a springboard for punchlines: a fascinating deep dive into the attention we crave and how that can manifest itself in insidious ways.
As well as directing the short, Mulani stars in front of the camera as Cary
Visually, the film strikes an interesting tonal balance: a cross between comedy and genre thriller elements. The desert house location does a lot of the heavy lifting and allows for plenty of interesting blocking and compositional moments (the wide shot of Cary’s silhouette from outside the house at night is a winner). And, while I do wish we got to the central “game” a bit sooner in the film’s runtime, when we do arrive there, I love how Mulani makes us experience it all in real time, forcing us to just hang in the escalating awkwardness and tension.
By the conclusion, the film refuses to let Cary off the hook: it doesn’t necessarily punish him, but it does force him to live with the consequences of his actions—he’s left all alone in this big rental house, desperately seeking digital attention after alienating his “friends.” It begs the question: what is the price of giving into your deepest anxieties and insecurities? And, in the pursuit of truth, does one risk ending up more isolated and damaged than when they started? As the old adage goes, perhaps ignorance truly is bliss…
I think Mulani proves to be a compelling rising voice, both in front of and behind the screen. I’m excited to see him develop it going forward.