DREAMING OF YOU (2024)
Starring Jack McCafferty, Lauren LaVera, Ian Ross, Jake Westphal, Katie Marovitch, Liz Priestley & Kevin Giles.
Screenplay by Jack McCafferty.
Directed by Jack McCafferty.
Distributed by Rinky Dink Kitchen Sink Productions. 95 minutes. Not Rated.
Screened at the 2024 Philadelphia Film Festival.
This local Philly-based debut surreal romantic comedy from writer / director / star / animator Jack McCafferty is a lot of fun and often very funny, even if you know it’s just wish fulfillment rather than an even slightly realistic look at a relationship.
It tells the story of Miles (McCafferty) and Ren (Lauren LaVera of the currently white-hot Terrifier movies). They meet in a medical waiting room because they are both having issues with sleep problems. Not surprisingly, Miles is immediately smitten with the gorgeous Ren. (Somewhat more surprisingly, the feeling seems to be mutual.)
Much of Miles’ world is broken up by nightmares, and he is rarely able to sleep through the night. (Several of these dream sequences are shown in animated sections done by McCafferty, who is not a great artist, but has a certain style in his work). In these animated dreams, suddenly Ren is in all of them. However, Miles can’t reach her, or even talk to her, as a subconscious representation of his anxiety and shyness. Which is kind of strange, because she’s pretty much throwing herself at him in the waking world.
In one of these dreams, he is on a game show called What Doe She See in Him? and Miles has no answer to this question. Nor does the gameshow host, it’s audience (which is made up of turkeys… don’t ask, it’s sort of a reference to something that happened earlier), or even his sidekick stuffed bear. And honestly, neither can the filmgoers.
It’s not just that she’s massively hotter than he is – and that is very much the case – but he’s also a complete mess. He has problems with anxiety and no self-esteem. He has no job (well he has one he hates early on, but is quickly fired), no money and lives in his late uncle’s garage, which is filled with creepy knickknacks. He also can’t sleep through the night, having nightmares which cause him sleep paralysis, and he often imagines he is being attacked by a demon during these occurrences.
Comparatively, she has an ex-boyfriend who is kind of a dick, and she is dealing with sleep apnea, which causes her to sleep with a CPAP machine. On the plus side, she flirts with him first in the awkward meet cute (in the waiting room of a medical sleep study). She tracks him down in the parking lot and offers him a ride home. She adds him on Facebook first. She texts him first. On their first date, she eventually tells him to make the first move and then has to pretty much talk him into it. Then she even kisses him first.
And why does she fall so hard for him? Well, she says it is because he doesn’t smother her with affection, and he is just himself with her. Yeah, that’s how it usually works with gorgeous women.
Okay, so it’s a nerd romantic fantasy. The hot chick who falls for and seduces the geek. It’s not overly realistic, but it still can be fun to watch. Hell, Judd Apatow made his early career pretty much on similar storylines.
Made on a shoestring budget, Dreaming of You actually turns out to be a pretty impressively well-made film for such an obvious indie. And like I said, it’s often pretty damned funny. Which in the end is all you can ask for in a comedy. I’m looking forward to seeing what McCafferty comes up with next, hopefully with a bit more of a budget.
Jay S. Jacobs
Copyright ©2024 PopEntertainment.com. All rights reserved. Posted: October 28, 2024.
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