“Friend Request Pending” [rating: 4/5]
Sunday at the Savannah Film Festival opened with Judi Dench, Penny Ryder and Phillip Jackson showing us that you are never too old to get excited about a new crush in “Friend Request Pending.”
The delightful short film features the Oscar-winner Dench going back to teenage giggles and worries as she tries to talk to a man (Jackson) she met at a party over Facebook Instant Messenger. Her friend, Linda, (Ryder) is there to give her helpful advice and cheeky innuendo. Tom Hiddleston (“Thor”) makes a brief cameo as Dench’s son Tom who is on the receiving end of a mischievous friend request from Linda.
The laughs are plenty and the story relatable no matter your age. As Dench worries about what to say and over Jackson’s slow response time, the audience is left with that oh-so-familiar feeling — thinking, “I’ve been there.”
“Missed Connections” [rating: 4/5]
Starting off the first full day of the 15th Annual Savannah Film Festival, “Missed Connections” takes the audience on a charming trip through rom-com clichés starring a cool New York indie squad. While all the conventions are in place there is a sincerity that seeps through the story that causes audience members to engage where most would check out. The film reminds the audience why the formula works. Scoring huge laughs and a smattering of applause, “Missed Connections” started Sunday off on the right foot.
Made on a shoestring budget in 17 days, “Missed Connections” tells the story of young New Yorkers battling to find love in the city that never stops moving. Jon Abrahams delivers an enjoyable performance as Josh Lindsay, an IT guy at a law firm where he spends his days clowning around with his friends Jules (Malcolm Barrett) and Pradeep (Waris Ahluwalia) and fawning over workaholic lawyer Lucy (Mickey Sumner). While spying on Lucy’s IMs to her friend Tess, (Julia Jones), Josh finds that Lucy is searching “missed connection” ads on a dating website to try to find a man she bumped into one day while leaving work. Josh is taken with the idea to post an ad to lure her into a date by pretending to be the mysterious man with the pocket square. When Lucy is not taken with the joke, Josh must pretend that it was an innocent mistake while continuing to post messages with the help of his friends in order to spend time with his betrothed.
But how long can he keep the act up?
With quick, punchy dialogue the cast gels together in a chemistry soaked performance in Martin Snyder’s debut. Standouts Barrett and Ahluwalia induce hysterics as they attempt to aid Josh in his quest for love in exchange for a tasty breakfast of bacon and eggs. Whether they’re writing romantic ads for Lucy, battle rapping Chiddy Bang, or running interference on Mr. Pocket Square, the duo steal the spotlight whenever they take to the screen.
Mickey Sumner also puts in a wonderful performance in her first starring role. She demands the audience’s attention and empathy as she struggles with the tremendous task of trying to balance her desire to find love with her hectic career. With one last week before she takes a job in the London branch of her firm, she is thrown into this comic tango with fate and technology. Sumner shows off her admirable range as a performer throughout the film. She can pull off sexy and vulnerable and hilarious all in the same stroke. Whether drunkenly falling from the bed in her lingerie or standing up to the vile villain of the story, you believe every instance as a moment that is utterly human, not just another tired rom-com ploy.
It might look familiar on paper, but “Missed Connections” is a film about experience and therefore should be viewed as such. As Josh slowly gets Lucy out of her shell on a series of kinda-sorta dates, he’s also getting the audience out of this notion that clichés are a death to story telling. From cell-phone mix-ups to the classic “on the way to the airport” bit, these things feel new again.
