Dipsomaniac: Bad Birthdays and a Bloody Becoming

Jeremy Stewart’s Dipsomaniac is a 17-minute dramedy following its protagonist’s lonely 27th birthday. His sole companion, Hal—unhinged from the word go—makes Tim and the audience wish there were zero companions. But Hal is here to stay, at least for the duration of the film.

For the large part, the story takes place inside a party bus, driven by the charming Raine (a caustic Sue Shaheen), herself largely absent save for an interlude. The narrative is divided into chapters, titled in the first person, and revolving around Hal (Danny Zuhlke, perfectly, pathetically maniacal) rather than Tim (Ben Rosenthal), whose birthday they are meant to be celebrating. Whether or not Tim has writing ambitions, this stylistic choice is ripe with the possibility.

When Tim meets Hal inside the low-lit, well-cushioned for the daylong sexual and inebriating celebration, Hal is already indulging in the festivities. The self-aware camerawork and editing are both hallucinatory and comedic while Hal oscillates between being unsettling and miserably pathetic. The frequent but unpredictable glitches that the film employs point to an alcoholic look but also seem to portend trouble. In the meantime, Hal manages to chase away two strippers (a buoyant Yurel Echezarreta, and Luisa Lee, who shines in a later scene) in a comedic sequence, while Tim has become the shadowed afterthought in his own story. Indeed, sitting hunched in a corner while Hal argues with Michael, Tim looks tiny, ready to blend into the wall. Rosenthal excels as the essentially anonymous, tiny Tim (especially at the very end).

The film makes a timely intervention. Just as the confines of the bus begin to become a little too narrow, the narrative shifts outside. Leaving the red-blue lit interiors comes as a jolt of shock as broad, unshadowed daylight floods the screen with the same intensity as the absence of the relentlessly unstable, and until then, borderline dangerous Hal. For a brief while, the glitches pause too.

At this point, the film seems to really put a pause on itself and fantasise about a different story. But what it does is bring visual and comic relief and a different kind of comedy, as if to illustrate the existence of possibilities for the one-note Hal and frankly, Tim. Titled “Raine’s interlude”, it is a brief scene centred on the eponymous driver, briefly including the female stripper, Veronica (Lee). A delight both for its writing and for Shaheen’s performance, especially in her equation with Lee, the scene is a breath of fresh air. Acidic, eccentric, and in parts sincere, it is a mix that is begging for its standalone film but for now, the interlude is a thrilling stopgap.

Once the glitches come back, the relationship between Tim and Hal worsens, spilling from the bus out into the evening. A demented brawl ensues, reminiscent of Fight Club, ending in nearly comic blood splatter and a truly comic hug.

Watch Dipsomaniac Short Film Trailer