The Hot Dog Guy

The writer-director Sara Bulloch pays a tribute to the community of hot dog sellers and tries to provide a sense of nostalgia through the three protagonists Seth AKA hot dog guy (Brent Bruchanski), (Micaela Lozano), and Guy (Dakota Nickels) thus increasing the degree of audience engagement with the content of The Hot Dog Guy.

The plot of the short film revolves around a woman in a club who has an anxiety attack and is comforted by a man with a hot dog cart outside.

The film opens with a combination of mid-shot and close-up shots to establish the party scenes to showcase the lifestyle of the female protagonist and the film moves forward at a fast pace as it has limited time trying to communicate many messages to the viewers and so it becomes a little confusing losing out on the comic element and making it more dramatic. The set design, the multi-colours utilised for the tone of the film, lighting, background music, dialogues, costume, hair, makeup, and props complement the subject matter to help maintain the interest of the audience in the context of the movie.

In terms of performance, Micaela Lozano plays the role of the woman who feels uneasy at the party attempting to figure out what has happened to her. Lozano understands the nuances of the character given to her. The actress has closely studied the body language of a person who suffers from an anxiety attack and keeps her performance very close to reality therefore the audience can relate to the same.

Brent Bruchanski plays Seth the hot dog guy who believes in helping those in need. Bruchanski depicts values of Seth effectively both in the case of his business and as a person. With his acting skills, Bruchanski manages to illustrate the essence of a hot dog vendor and also appeals to a wider set of audience emotionally.

Dakota Nickels plays the lover of the woman who suffered from an anxiety attack. Nickels effortlessly fits into the mould of a perfect boyfriend caring, loving kind of man that every girl dreams of getting. Though Nickels has very short screen time, his screen presence is very strong to leave a lasting impact on the audience.

The Hot Dog Guy talks about always helping people in need without expecting anything in return. The short film reiterates the happiness and satisfaction one tends to feel when attending parties and becoming socially relevant but these cannot be done at the cost of one’s health which affects friends and loved ones also. The comedy film highlights that young people like to capture many things happening on the road and put them on social media platforms like YouTube instead of helping and saving lives in emergencies. The cinematic piece also tells us that food is the best thing to comfort someone, make them feel better, or motivate them to achieve important milestones and steer their lives towards a better future.

To conclude, I would like to say the topic chosen by Sara Bulloch is a good one, the casting is on point but the director could have worked on the execution to make the audience more comfortable while watching the creative piece.