From Omeleto.
A copywriter stops working.
I’M GOOD is used with permission from John Merizalde. Learn more at https://johnmerizalde.com.
Herman is a copywriter at an ad agency, where his co-workers are in awe of his work ethic and productivity. But on one Friday, he stops working. When his co-workers invite him out, Herman declines, saying "I’m good."
From that day forward, Herman refuses to do anything asked of him. Each time, he says "I’m good" to any request, staring at his computer screen as a logo moves on his screensaver. At first, his workers see it as a strange quirk. But as Herman persists in his refusal, the ad agency descends into uncertainty and quiet chaos as they figure out what to do.
Directed and written by John Merizalde, this eccentric, darkly intelligent short dramedy is a contemporary update of Herman Melville’s classic short story, BARTLEBY, THE SCRIVENER, transposed now to an ad agency instead of a Wall Street firm. Like his literary antecedent, Herman is polite, even serenely indifferent to the hustle and bustle of the world around him. But he refuses to work,move or leave the office, and his mere existence becomes a moral and social quandary for the other office workers, provoking questions about the nature of work and its effect on the individual, especially when the individual becomes a cog in a larger machine.
Brought to life with darkly gleaming cinematography that evokes a slightly ominous corporate veneer and an eye for shots that emphasize the claustrophobic and slightly disorienting, the storytelling takes a wider view: instead of focusing on Herman’s psychology, it immerses us more in the milieu itself as Herman’s polite refusal to do anything sets off a contagion of off-kilter reactions. The dialogue weaves in platitudes and phrases that capture the blandly anodyne chit-chat of office culture, but as Herman proves intransigent in his refrain of "I’m good," the other workers are put in a tailspin.
Some get angry and aggressive; others muse about the meaning of Herman’s refusal on a more philosophical level. As Herman, actor Chad Sarahina is suitably enigmatic, a blank slate upon which his co-workers project anything and everything as they figure out what to do with him. The writing finds pointed humor in how many of the solutions have to be "run by higher-ups" or considered in light of business concerns, not just for profit but for respectability and avoidance of blowback.
As the office works through the issue of Herman through a 21st-century corporate logic, I’M GOOD begins to depart from its source material in illuminating ways that show just how large and sweeping economic structures have become since Melville first published the story of Bartleby. Melville’s story ended on a personal and even shocking tragic note, taking Bartleby’s refusal to its logical extreme. This version ends with no loss of life, but in a way that’s business as usual — and questioning if there’s any room at all for individual resistance in the face of such a looming power.
