These days, comedy is not as much about the slapstick gags, but about presenting the absurd world that we live in, where incidents do not necessarily have to make any sense. The new filmmakers are acting on this very absurdity. The humor derives from irregularity and a rather illogical track of events. The reality is not perceived as merely a purpose leading to the goal. Writer-director Maxim Bessermertny seems to have used this very nature for “Dirty Laundry”.
In the short, we are introduced to two characters – which are foreign to the land that they live in. One of them (Richard) is a film studies student while the other one (Ethan) is a music producer. Both of these millennial westerners are living in Macau and are in dire need to sell the washing machine they use in their common apartment. What unfolds with their mutual decision is a series of events where they roam around the town while tagging along with the same machine everywhere they go. All they have is a hope for it to get sold.
There are obvious conflicts one would think of with respect to the characters in such a situation. There are language barriers, making them fall into comic situations. The communication error also comes with the cultural differences resulting in the varying beliefs. There is a matter of ease as well, which would have benefited them in their homeland in similar circumstances. They just fall into different sets of events one after another without being successful in doing so. Despite that, their perseverance and determination to sell the washing machine are intact.
But that is not what makes “Dirty Laundry” entertaining. It is the mundane acts they engage in that they cannot calculate the outcome of. Their whole journey comes off like a funny skit about failing in every single effort. Like the Sisyphus rolling the boulder up the hill till eternity, only their struggle prevails. They do not. This nature is cleverly cashed in by the writer-director through the short film's central premise.
Yet, as aforementioned, the conflicts are mostly predictable. The intercultural aspects are not dealt with in a way that we haven't seen before. The situations become more dominant than the characters, living them to appear bland. Their characteristics hardly go beyond their description in the credits. The one who plays guitar is supposedly a music producer and the one who mentions a few iconic films remains a film student. As a result, it succeeds only in being an engaging comedy sketch but does not go beyond to present an experience very particular to these characters.
