The Interview: A Chaotic Drama on The Legal Kaleidoscope and the Shifts it Allows

Liam Treacy’s The Interview is a peculiar, potent eighteen-minute drama about a lawyer who wants to be hired and another lawyer who gives him the perverse skinny on how to do it. A two-character plot means that the roomy runtime is filled to the brim with tense character development that in turn illustrates the sordid way law is allowed to function. 

The film’s writing is distinctly theatrical, going (loudly) left of expectations for the full first half, becoming more and more bizarre as the deliberately dishevelled candidate (Patrick, played by Michael Lake)  does his best to get the attention of his inert, unwilling audience: attorney Jason Hammond (Thain Wesley). The latter, dressed in seemingly the sharpest suit lowly mankind could procure for him, sits all but lifeless, a statue to be admired from a distance, an ironic Michelangelo’s David. 

The stubbornly stationary camera is facilitated by a shot-reverse-shot structure, the tension mounting steadily as Patrick’s jokes bomb in a room that feels quiter by the second while some unnamed but palpable strain makes Jason google for spa retreats after a legal advice filled call with, surprisingly, his mother. Though rather rough, the camerawork creates anticipation and effective jolts every one of the handful of times it subsequently moves. These changes occur once Jason starts to respond (the attention had already been reciprocated, however silent and begrudging). What was funny now takes a turn towards the dark as Jason coaches Patrick into perfect hiring material at the criminal law firm. Lake’s performance is curious in the way it makes Patrick’s enthusiasm seem affected, as if Patrick wants to underscore the set-up which allows and asks attorneys like Jason to allow criminals freedom from consequences. Correspondingly, Wesley appears to give Jason some kind of conscience. There is just a smidge less self-congratulation there than one would expect. Indeed, given the coaching, what should have the look and sound of the boys’ club getting together feels all wrong in the right, if not easily defined, way. 

Wherever the discrepancies may have sneaked in from, it turns the characters into interesting subjects and makes the camera pans and jerks feel earned. As the literal interview falls by the wayside, The Interview turns the interim into a surprising character study that leaves as many questions on the table as it provides insights. By the end of it, Jason is left to look as if suffocating in the grip of his own sharp suit. 

Watch The Interview Short Film