“2URDOOR,” directed by Erin Dailey and Devon Menendez

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San Diego Short Film Festival

Comedy

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TRT 15:00

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In “2URDOOR,” a food courier (Kelsey Long) deals with a series of occupational challenges that include bike thieves, overly friendly customers and overly unfriendly customers.

“Comedy” is a broad concept. There may be subjective and time-bound best practices that one can follow, but there’s nothing akin to a rulebook when it comes to what’s generally considered funny. That said, “2URDOOR” isn’t particularly funny.

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Among contemporary best practices in comedy is the concept of “punching up” – joking at the expense of those in power or with influence. That is present here, in what is probably the funniest part of the film. it opens with a commercial for the titular delivery service, and the commercial captures all of the cheese and performative joy of advertising in our app-dominated age. Unfortunately, the rest of “2URDOOR” either punches down at its protagonist or punches sideways at her bougie, stoned and tech-bro clients respectively.

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Visually, this is all presented quite well. Shots are thoughtful, with generous camera movement and focal shifts that keep things kinetic. The sparse visual effects are put to good use. And there’s an interesting if slightly disturbing bit of prop comedy where we’re treated to the contents of the stoned customer’s pocket as he fishes for a tip.

Sound design is a standout, with clear dialog throughout and a jazzy, percussive soundtrack that punctuates the unpredictability of the courier’s journey. Performances are good, with many of the actors playing their roles very broadly against Long’s foil.

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The situations that the actors find themselves in don’t work for me quite so well. I know that the film borrows from real-life client-service interactions, but two scenes go on for a long while when they should have both ended within 10 seconds with a simple “have a nice day.” That definitely would have been more believable. But would it have been funnier? Unfortunately, that’s an arguable point.