78 - The Phone Call

    A young man is generally paralyzed and awkward when he attempts to talk to his dream girl.  He works with another girl who tries to help him overcome his problems.
    A short film - a shade under a half hour - produced by the Mormon church.  It’s a very clean story, nothing objectionable at all, but it has a certain charm.  For a short, it moves along well, and it’s written pretty well.  The only problem is the open ending, which was probably intentional.  I imagine that the church used this as a way of stimulating discussion with the teens they would screen it for.
    The awkwardness on display here is palpable.  It’s funny, but it’s really pretty intense.
    A lot of the comments compare it to Napoleon Dynamite, and there are a few similarities.  His awkward phrasing, a subplot involving him sending away for a kit to learn karate in order to build confidence… it’s easy to feel like this was an influence.  But there’s a difference at the core.  Napoleon never seems embarrassed by his awkwardness.  He remains confident in it.  In this, the lead is aware of his awkwardness and feels helpless against it.
    Not bad, and certainly worth the half hour.