Me, Myself & the Void
I’m not going to lie- the reason I wanted to watch this film was because it has Kelly Marie Tran in it, and I’m a fan for life of hers after “The Last Jedi.” As Tim Hautekiet’s film unfolded, though, this became a more personal experience for me than I anticipated, and it hit me fully in my emotions. It’s a straightforward premise that is executed perfectly. This is one of my favorite, most unexpected films of the year.
Jack (Jack De Sena) is a stand-up comedian whose prospects seem to be getting stronger, but something is not quite right. His friend, Chris (Chris W. Smith), is with him, but his apartment doesn’t look the same as it usually should. It appears he is stuck in a void, and when they see his body on the floor of his bathroom, they realize that he is in a limbo state between life and death. How did he get there? That’s what his journey for the next 85 minutes will be about.
It feels like a cliche that people who look to make us laugh are really masking deep-seeded pain; often on social media someone will post a quote along those lines with an image of someone like Robin Williams to drive the point home. I’m not sure exactly how much truth there is to that, but in their screenplay, Hautekiet and Nik Oldershaw lean into it in unexpected ways that had me thinking, and fully engaged. Life and death scenarios have a way of forcing us to consider choices and behavior, and the way Hautekiet has that manifest as the film goes along is compelling and impacted me deeply. Sometimes, it takes us getting to our most desperate place for us to reflect on our behavior, and how it’s impacted others. How Jack reaches this point was deeply emotional and cathartic for me. This is a film about getting a second chance to do things better. How it gets there is fairly predictable, but how De Sena plays it is what makes it work.
In a very weird way, this kind of reminded me of “Everything Everywhere All at Once.” No, Jack is not stuck in a multiverse, but the way the people in his life manifest in this void feels less like spirits visiting him but different versions of these characters. Tran plays Mia, Jack’s ex-girlfriend whom we see knocking furiously at his door, furious at him for reasons we will not find out until later; we also see her show up to him in a similar way his friend Chris does, but as we see this story unfold, there’s more to him and Chris than we anticipated. We also see him with his parents, a fellow comedian, and his roommate; some of these are in Jack’s “purgatory,” and some are flashbacks as he is trying to figure out what happened to him. The way this story unfolds has a structure to it to build to its climax, which is why it landed so strongly with me. “Me, Myself and the Void” is for anyone who finds themselves at a crossroads, and found their way to the right side of their journey in the end. I loved this film so much.
