A fidgety, wisecracking video store clerk develops a fixation on a particularly reclusive customer, a frequent visitor to the pornography section of Cinefile, the video store where he works in Los Angeles. After multiple failures to impress her during their brief daily transactions, he finds her street address in the store's database, drives to her apartment building and initiates an unconventional campaign to win her affections.
Acting
Palka and Ritter's raw, uncomfortable chemistry carries every scene
Writing
Dialogue that dares you to find these people likable
Director
Marianna Palka
Marianna Palka
The Woman
Jason Ritter
The Man
Eric Edelstein
Eric
Mark Webber
Derek
Martin Starr
Simon
Tom Arnold
Dad
Jesse García
Jose
Katherine Waterston
Katherine
Elisabeth Waterston
Elisabeth
Charles Durning
Charlie
Seth Gabel
Kissing Man
Bryce Dallas Howard
Kissing Woman
Tyler Ritter
Young Handsome Man
Jeremy Glazer
Café Patron
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Marianna Palka wrote, directed, and starred in this at age 26, shooting in her actual Los Angeles neighborhood with a $40,000 budget.
The video store setting already felt nostalgic in 2008—Blockbuster collapsed the following year, making this an unintentional time capsule of pre-streaming courtship.
US
