A woman shares a hotel room with her crush, then has an embarrassing situation.
ANACONDA is used with permission from Cornelia Hanes. Learn more at corneliahanes.com.
Annie is a single, slightly uptight Swedish woman who is new to L.A. and still getting used to her new home. Looking to expand the circle of people she knows, she agrees to tag along with a group of new friends to Burning Man. The group includes Eric, a man with whom Annie experiences a spark of romantic attraction.
When they have some car trouble and find themselves in Reno, the group all have to share one hotel room. The close quarters could prompt an unexpected and not unwelcome intimacy with Eric. But when Annie finds herself in an embarrassing situation, she worries that such proximity might ruin her chances in love after all.
Directed by Chelsea Gonzalez and written by Cornelia Hanes, who also stars as Annie, this frank, funny short romantic comedy finds wit, humor and not a little empathy in the gap between the ideal self we want to present to a new love interest and the messy human beings we actually are. Quick-witted pacing, fun dialogue and an upbeat soundtrack appeal to fans of the rom-com genre, but what makes the short particularly heartfelt is its insistence on the importance of authenticity when it comes to a genuine romantic connection.
The storytelling launches us right into Annie's situation, opening with a brief frank scene in the bathroom, sketching out her background quickly and establishing a possible romance with Eric. They have a few sweet moments at the start that anticipate a charming, cute possibility of coming together as a couple, as well as a few slightly embarrassing hiccups. With the effervescence of an expansive road trip and the wide-open cinematography to match, viewers would likely expect a journey that's adorable and charming with a few quirky speed bumps to ramp up interest.
The sly, subversive writing delivers a much more real, squirmingly relatable obstacle to true love, one that revs up Annie's anxiety, especially considering how physically close everyone is. All the smaller embarrassments from earlier have snowballed into something potentially and hugely mortifying for Annie, and her efforts to extract herself from the situation only add to the comedy. As Annie, Hanes deftly finds a balance between neuroticism, awkwardness and a relatable vulnerability. But eventually, all her attempts to fix her dilemma only add to the complications -- and potentially jeopardize a promising romantic connection.
Good-natured, well-paced and entertaining to watch, ANACONDA could easily veer into gross-out body humor or exaggerated farce with its plotline. Instead, it keeps true to its ultimate message of "keeping it real," keeping its emotional tenor on the more even-keeled and natural side of things. It makes for awkward comedy, but it also offers a fine, low-key celebratory message about rejecting shame over something that everyone does and celebrating self-love as not an inflation of ego, but an acceptance of the imperfections of being human.