“Interesting Ball”
INTERESTING BALL is a 2014 short film with snippets of plot loosely tied to a theme of the interconnectedness nature of lives and the infinite number of possibilities in our world—arriving like five years after those subjects and tropes had been well played out (though they keep coming back to varying degrees of success). And it is one of my favorite things ever.
I first saw this short at SXSW in 2015 as part of the film festival’s “Midnight Shorts” collection and it has basically been bouncing around in my mind for six years since. The entire short was directed by Dan Kwan and Daniel Scheinert, filmmakers who often work together under the title “DANIELS”. The segments were written by Justin Becker, Benjamin Brewer, Alex Brewer, Dustin Emerson Straube, and Daniel Schienert. The music is by Alessandro Tabora, with Matt Sanderson and Larkin Seiple handling the cinematography
The ~13 minute short follows about five separate stories happening concurrently that begin familiarly enough. A lonely housewife, an awkward date, a prank caller, friends trying to cheer up their brokenhearted buddy, and a funny stunt gone awry. Then things take a turn for the weird. It is truly hard to imagine folks being able to predict where these threads will lead, but the tales spiral off into insanely surreal bits of comedy that feel like cathartic truths but may just be ironic goofiness. It works on both levels while presenting images that I hadn’t seen in movies at that time (there have been some films that have since been released that definitely borrow plot points/visuals from INTERESTING BALL).
DANIELS have worked together on multiple projects, including many in/famous music videos like DJ Snake and Lil Jon’s “Turn Down For What”, Passion Pit’s “Cry Like A Ghost”, The Shins’ “A Simple Song”, amongst many others. They also co-directed SWISS ARMY MAN, which is a goddamn gem of a movie if you haven’t seen it. Together they’ve worked on various other shorts and TV shows. Kwan directed a great episode Legion and Scheinert made the sweet and twisted THE DEATH OF DICK LONG. I love their work as it brims with a combination of puerility, profundity, and compassion; like these goofy and gross things aren’t just trivial or trite but the odd ways we are all alike and can connect. Plus…y’know: farts are funny. I even put together a playlist of a bunch of their stuff. Meanwhile, I am desperately looking forward to their next project, EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE.
Until then, INTERESTING BALL will continue replaying in my mind and hopefully yours, too, once you watch it.