LA-based writer, director, and producer Mary Neely’s SXSW premiering short film, ‘Pink Trailer,’ is a quirky, fast-paced comedy that is as funny as it is charming.
Neighbors can be a drag. They can be too intrusive, too eccentric, or maybe just a little too weird. It’s the kind of psychopathic weird that makes you do a double take out your window at your neighbor as he does lunges in his front yard in short shorts that are a tad too short. In the case of Lucy (Macey Isaacs) and Julie (Jenny Leiferman), it seems that they’ve landed a neighbor that has the trifecta of traits. From his incessantly unwanted visits to his bellowing calls of loneliness at the door, Lucy and Julie can’t help but feel that maybe their neighbor Benny (who lives with his mother next door) is maybe, perhaps, um, a serial killer.
Mary Neely’s SXSW debuting short film Pink Trailer tells the story of Lucy and Julie as they house sit for Lucy’s grandmother who is away for the summer. The only problem is that their neighbor Benny won’t leave them alone, to the point where paranoid Julie and a reluctantly passive Lucy think that he may be a creep at best and a murderer at worst. Not wanting to chance it, the duo dive for their carpeted floors any time Benny might come knocking on the door asking for sandwiches or to play. To the girls, they don’t know if he’s just a weirdo or a Durst-lookalike.
Written by the Leiferman and Isaacs and directed (and edited) by Neely, Pink Trailer is a idiosyncratic exercise in hilarious one-liners and popular culture of the early 1990s. From the endless time-killing games of Guess Who? to pink frosting smothered Pop-Tarts that the two eat for lunch, the world of Pink Trailer is stuck in time. Perhaps the sunburst, pale tones of pastels in Pink Trailer are a blast from the past are simply her grandmother’s aesthetic sensibilities, but more likely, the vitreous color scheme stands in for Lucy and Julie’s childlike views of responsibilities and confrontation.
It provides a well-construct and funny look into the lives of two twenty-somethings that have to summon the courage to deal with their own issues much like they must summon the courage to deal with Benny. It’s a wonderful allegory, one that has perhaps been done one time too many times in the post-millennial world of quirky comedies. Nonetheless, the wonderfully sharp zingers, charming characterizations, and a quick-fire editing technique from Neely helps elevate the short film and its dialogue to new levels of sincere hilarity. Coupled with Isaac’s adeptly deadpan performance, Pink Trailer is triumphant short film from Mary Neely, one that will surely put her on the radar of writer’s rooms sooner rather than later.
Pink Trailer premiered as part of SXSW’s Narrative Shorts Competition.
