Drinks (Short)
Friendships are hard, at times. Long-time friendships have ebbs and flows with them that can lead to tension, lack of trust, and betrayal. But time cannot heal every wound, although sometimes, the next best thing can be to cause some fresh ones. That’s an idea of toxic masculinity, though, something filmmaker Jakob Bilinski is exploring in his short film, “Drinks.” Sometimes, catharsis is brought on only by indulging in toxic behavior, until you have nowhere else to go.
“Drinks” begins with a man (D.P. Bonnell) coming into what looks like a high-class bar to meet someone for drinks. The hostess (Emily Durchholz) tells him that the other man (Bilinski) is already here, and they are already on the clock. For what? As the time ticks away, we learn that these two have a past, have a friendship, but one that seems to have broken by lack of trust. Tonight, they are set to work on those issues through playing a card game that will determine their fates moving forward.
The screenplay by Bilinski and Bonnell simply crackles in how crisp and hard-boiled its dialogue is, and as actors, they sell it beautifully. But it’s not just that- these guys have looks to them that are perfectly suited to this story. This is like a scene out of a modern noir, where the characters are determining their fates by putting them in the hands of others, and they know that that means they may not come out on the other side of this. That’s a brutal way to have a friendship play out, but Bilinski, as editor, and Bonnell, as cinematographer, keeps us on the edge of our seats with how he visually builds the tension, and how the characters react to each moment. The hostess is not an inconsequential character, however; she has a part to play in both developing the themes of the story, as well as how she projects the parameters of what the men have going on themselves. This was a highly compelling 24 minutes to watch, as well as a lot of fun to watch unfold.
