Everything You’ve Done Wrong, Baby…
Interview w/ Unfriending co-directors Brett + Jason Butler by Ryan Brady
In Unfriending, a new satire by Brett and Jason Butler, Blake (Sean Meldrum) and his girlfriend, May (Simone Jetsun-Meyer), host a dinner party at Blake’s parents home for their closest friends, including Blake’s oldest friend, Isaac (Alex Stone). The dinner party is actually a set up for a life intervention for Isaac, where the friend group tells him all the reasons he has become a burden to them and society in general, and that he should really just kill himself already. This black comedy is a razor sharp satire on cancel culture and the me generation in general.
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RB: What inspired this story ? Were classic dinner party murder mysteries such as Clue an influence when making this film?
BB + JB: We were inspired to write this story when we were locked in our homes, like everybody else during the pandemic, stuck in front of computer screens, and we became alarmed by the way people were communicating with each other online. Reading comments sections on social media is often an ugly and hilarious endeavor at the best of times but things got really twisted during the lockdown. You could see people’s empathy disappear in real time, sides were chosen and positions dug into, and the mentality of you’re either with me or against me became the name of the game. Friendships ended, death threats were thrown around with ease, and with this came the rise of cancel culture. Our thoughts were: what if we put the way people were talking to each other into a “real world” experience, in a real friend group, face to face, rather than behind a computer. Our hope being that the ugliness of it all would put in perspective the way people were actually communicating with each other, how it actually sounded out loud, and this would not only be funny as hell, but also as a way of highlighting the need for empathy for each other within the current climate.
RB: Can you please speak to me about your sound design and score? I’m particularly interested in your use of bass and the influence of jazz, but also the inclusion of Sloan’s “Everything You’ve Done Wrong”. What inspired these choices, and how does your sound design relate to the film’s themes?
BB + JB: Great question! We love the score created by Tyler Lombard, and we worked intensively early on with him on it, so that he really lock in on what we were hoping to achieve with it. The difficult part of the process was balancing the various tones of the film, from comedic, to incredibly dark, as well as empathetic, and wanting the score to help push those tones out at the right time. The jazz influence we hope to highlight how out of touch these characters are, how they truly believe that their dinner party is a classy affair, something directly opposed to the reality of it. We also loved the idea that Blake just put on a record from his parents record collection as he plays house in their home, and the combination of these elements would give a unique throwback quality to the movie. To further this idea we steered clear of everything really modern for the most part of the film despite the very modern inspiration behind the story — we are always drawn to using music anachronistically to achieve a timeless quality within the world of the film. We feel the use of Sloan’s ‘Everything You’ve Done Wrong’ not only worked perfectly lyrically, but the fun nature of the pop style of it beautifully and hilariously diametrically opposed the darkness of what was happening in both scenes it was used in. Plus they’re a kick ass and legendary band from our hometown!
RB: You play a lot with the tension between how things appear on the surface and how they look underneath. Characters are constantly referencing this. What drove your choices for set design? Also, towards the beginning of the film Blake mentions that a tree looks “Tim Burton-esque”, as well as a later reference to Edward Scissorhands. Why is Blake so obsessed w/ Burton?
BB + JB: The set design was the same idea as the score and use of music. Blake’s hosting this dinner party at his childhood home, so what the audience sees are these lovely pictures of him as a child, a completely clean and proper and clean suburban house, that is again one hundred percent opposite of what the dinner party is truly about and what is going to happen there. It is anything but clean and proper, it is dirty, ugly, and horrible, and like you said, what is on the surface is completely different from the underbelly. This suburban oasis where Blake was brought up has spurned someone completely detached from reality and empathy. The references aided this idea, whether it was Blake referencing a Tim Burton-esque tree, Edward Scissorhands, or John Wick’s gun, as a way of them normalizing this heinous act not only for themselves but also the audience. We feel the addition of these pop culture throwaways brings a casualness to their banter that we feel makes it even more twisted. Having Blake referencing some of his best friend’s favourite things while simultaneously planning to bully him into suicide is completely dark and demented, even more so that it seems Blake truly believes that is motivations are right and good.
RB: The characters in this dark comedy seem almost allegorical at times, and at others strangely sympathetic and human. Characters like Darby and Blake ride this line, as do most of the others. How do these representations relate to themes of ‘cancel culture’ and the ‘me generation’?
BB + JB: You could definitely say allegorical, for sure. These characters are designed as a representation of what people act like behind the comforts of their computer screens and phones when they demand someone die for their preconceived notions of right and wrong, without regard to facts, circumstance or context. This online herd mentality gets whipped up into a frenzy in no time at all, and it seems to us that the herd often doesn’t even fully conceive they are chasing down an actual, real person. So that’s why we liked this story as an allegory for that, to put a face (or faces) to this online cancel stampede. To satirize this point we made the reason for Isaac’s cancellation so extreme that it couldn’t actually be real. That is, this group of friends are cancelling one of their own, for the sole reason that, essentially, he bums them out. But the only way that message has an impact is to have it performed in the most sincere way possible. It’s unbelievable until it is believable, and when it feels believable, that’s when it gets really dark. Even Darby, who is our one character putting a fight up against the whole affair ends up succumbing to her most petty rage, someone not buying her album, that it feels justified, but it really is the height of narcissism. She is in fact like everyone else, so obsessed with herself that other people’s feelings are no longer on her radar. We feel this is something that social media has propagated since its inception, so much so that many people have become their own personal obsession, the cult of celebrity has turned inwards. That to us is the “me generation” in a nutshell, and this group represents the worst of that.
RB: What are you hoping that audiences take away from your film?
BB + JB: Firstly, some laughs, that’s for sure! And we do hope it can stimulate conversation, really in any direction, but hopefully people realize that their actions and their words, whether it be from a keyboard, a phone, or a face to face conversation, have real people at the other end of it. That nobody is as infallible as they will have you believe they are online, and the consequences of assuming infallibility can be dangerous. And maybe when somebody is about to spout some vitriol to another human being, they at least might give it a second thought, for a moment.
Unfriending screens at Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center cinema on Saturday, October 7 @ 9PM. Co-directors Brett + Jason Butler will be in attendance for a live filmmaker Q+A after the screening. More info + tickets here — https://www.buffalofilm.org/events/unfriending/
