DIRECTORS STATEMENT:

At the core of it, what motivated me to make this film is my revelations of how I was when I first started dating as a teenager. My first ‘puppy love’ relationship involved a girl who would cut herself because of the abuse she was getting from her father at home. I didn't know how to handle that. I never felt like I could truly help her and that affected me in how I would act in my future relationships. Moreover, in 2022 I feel like we have all the tools (multiple dating apps) we never had to communicate, but yet we still struggle with it. In terms of dating, I think we’ve gone backwards. Similarly to how I got a rough start when I first started dating as a teenager. I was inspired by films like Gone Girl, Eyes Wide Shut and Newness. All films that discuss the different themes of relationships like trust, communication, love, and pain. Tonally, the film is a collision of different genres - Romantic, comedy, social satire but at its core is a domestic drama. The worlds of the characters are hyperreal at some points and dreamlike at others. There is no balance, and this is heavily tied into how I view the dating culture in this present day.