From Omeleto.
Friends attend a funeral.
I’M DEAD, YOU’RE WELCOME is used with permission from J.R. Russell, Taissa Zveiter, Julia Lopriore and Sandy Eells. Learn more at https://linktr.ee/imdeadyourewelcome.
Sam, Megan, Amanda and Danica are four close friends who have gathered at the funeral of another close friend, Brock, who recently passed away in an accident. Brock was adventurous, high-achieving and charismatic, and gone too far early in his prime; he was well-loved by his friends, each of whom he loved as well.
The four reminisce about Brock’s legacy, and soon they come to reflect on their own life choices and the impact that their friendships have made on them. But as each friend’s private affairs come out, they find themselves tangled closer together in a way they never expected.
Directed by Roderick Fenske from a script co-written with J.R. Russell, this short ensemble comedy may take place at a funeral, but it’s not overly mordant or grim. Dark comedies come in a few flavors: some find a gallows humor in how extreme people can become in dire or sinister situations, while others use sad or dark situations to explore the peccadillos of human nature in a wry, unexpected way. This short is more like the latter, taking advantage of the emotional nature of a funeral to explore how a person’s secrets and eccentricities bubble up to the surface, even after they’re gone.
The storytelling takes time at the top to build sharp and incisive portraits of each character in this particular friend group. They’re very different, varying from shy, straightlaced and even nerdy to frankly libidinal, outspoken and poised. But what they all have in common is their dead friend Brock, who they all speak of in glowing, admiring terms. The writing has fun exaggerating these characters slightly, and the performances and editing have a dry, awkward comic timing that emphasizes the oddball nature of each person, but it’s not quite farcical. They’re collectively grounded in a sadness that Brock is gone, though each friend’s grief is individual and initially private.
The film’s party trick, however, is making these private reasons public and watching hell break loose, an arc that’s cleverly managed by the interweaving of different storylines, each of which sets off an emotional reaction in another, and the distinctive performances by actors J.R. Russell, Taissa Zveiter, Sandy Eells and Julia Lopriore, who play the friends. To be more specific would be to ruin part of the fun, but suffice it to say that Brock emerges as even more of a larger-than-life character, even in death. Brock leaves a lasting legacy with each friend, knotting them together in a way that they never expected — and leaving Sam especially flabbergasted at the end. (It also leaves plenty of room to explore in a potential TV series, being developed by the film’s creators.) It brings I’M DEAD, YOU’RE WELCOME to a crazy, oddly delightful conclusion — and offers a whole new spin on the idea of "modern family."
