Love You Tyler: Diamonds and Kisses for Tyler(s)

Ari Itkin and Devon Diffenderfer’s Love You Tyler is the kind of comedy that might let you guess the ending but not how it will get there. A 9-minute comedy about two roommates who are faced with the awkward realities of living with other people. But really, it is two boys yelling no homo at each other. 

Roommates for two years, Luke (Diffenderfer) and Tyler (Ryan Pater) are not exactly friends. That is to say, Tyler sees Luke as his friend’s weird little brother that he must begrudgingly look out for. But when Luke surprises him in a way that is as unexpected as not, a dam breaks. With the camera in the two characters’ orbit like a slack-mouthed, bewildered third roommate, Luke and Tyler’s unstable dynamic appears just that much more volatile and ready to collapse. 

Luke announces his new relationship, with one Tyler, a different, female Tyler. The latter is unconvinced, more certain that this is Luke’s roundabout way of confessing his feelings. If the same names and professions were not enough, Luke decides to rehearse proposing on Tyler, his roommate. The wobbly foundations of their friendship get more weight added on. Simultaneously, the unpredictability and discomfort escalate. When it all comes tumbling down, it is a multi-crash affair that is best watched than read. The power dynamic shifts, characterizations find nuance. Luke discovers he can be firm. Tyler would like to scream no homo a little more (or less). The genre threatens to dissolve. 

It is not the twists that make Love You Tyler so watchable, but the complete lack of stability that is at their root—and which in turn is rooted in Luke. Perhaps this is boys being boys in all its bizarre, hilarious tenderness. 

Watch Love You Tyler Short Film