Domestic Bliss

Ben Van Bergen’s Domestic Bliss describes itself as a socially awkward comedy. And it will definitely make viewers feel awkward. Sometimes as a result of clever observations about the uncomfortable and unavoidable friction that is inherent in NYC rental life. Sometimes as the result of filmmaking misfires that make this short feel like too rough of a feature to work.

Bill Dupree (Douglas Everett Davis) awakens after a night of debauchery with girlfriend Carla (Elissa Piszel) in his rented New York City apartment. But this morning turns into one like no other, as his ex-wife Wendy (Sabrina Seidner) shows up at his front door. Turns out Wendy has rights to the lease, and needs somewhere to stay. Bill’s life is turned upside down as he and Carla take the fight to Wendy – but unforeseeable circumstances mean the trio end up in each others domestic lives in ways they didn’t expect.

Domestic Bliss is a dark, mature comedy about the impossibilities of rental life in the world’s most famous metropolis. Gone are the days of Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer having their own place, or the ‘Friends’ gang living in relative mansions in trendy Manhattan suburbs. New York, and so many other cities just like it, is a hellscape of rental warfare and dictatorial landlords. Domestic Bliss is set amongst this rat race, and finds the humour and tragedy in the social dynamic. Wendy’s opening salvo towards Bill in completely understandable in this context – and all of the main cast will earn the audience’s sympathies as a result.

Much of the film’s humour comes from the childishness the cast displays. Douglas Everett Davis plays up the wannabe-playboy elements of Bill Dupree’s character – a carefree, responsibility-shirking rolling stone of a man for whom the bright lights of New York are beginning to dim. Whilst the trio provide the story, but many of the best lines come from the supporting side characters. Thomas Mcmahon’s Detective Gracie, Andrea Sooch’s Magyar the wi-fi installer and Brian Coll’s security guy all have highlights as unknowing agents of a system that could drive anyone into madness.

The film is a low-budget independent production and is admirably ambitious given this. Shot across multiple locations around NYC and with a reasonably extensive cast, it outperforms its finances in scale. But production falls flat in other areas – notably sound design where some of the film’s best lines are imperceptible as volume drops, whilst other vocals blast out at discomforting volume. Some scenes are clearly first-take-or-bust as cast members provide flat line deliveries that do not live up to what is actually quite an incisive script. And the editing and shot design can also be unimaginative and visually boring. You can always allow a little extra road for upstart productions, and Domestic Bliss gets a lot more right than wrong given its lofty goals for a film of its size. But one wonders if it has spread itself a little too thin in key areas.

There’s a lot to like about Domestic Bliss and its skewering of the broken housing system in New York that is now plunging entire new generations into domestic chaos. There are a lot of rough areas in its production that detracts from a solid script that invokes a lot of laughs. A little more refinement would have let these moments stand out more – whereas they get lost amongst visual and audio shortcomings in this final feature that risk being the audience’s bigger takeaways.