WATCH THE TRAILER HERE
First, the Recap:
Paying attention. Is it not a foregone conclusion that as any type of counselor or psychiatrist, your client needs the undivided regard when sharing their inner most struggles and pain with you? For them, just knowing they have a fully engaged, listening ear is a comfort in itself, much less any sage words of professional advice. Yet, for one such client named Jamie (Eddie Jackson), having come to the office of Dr. Brian Robson (Tim Casey) might not quite have been the best possible choice. You see, Dr. Robson has a bit of a problem with–yep, you guessed it–observational negligence.
An avid football fan and Manager addict, the league championship is now at stake, and the good doctor’s focus and agenda is far more centered on the status of the game at hand than on Jamie, whose heartfelt sharing about the loss of a family pet to his dear Grandmother falls upon distracted ears. Even as Jamie begins to notice the distracted doctor’s antics, Brian proceeds to fill the air with sports-related, metaphorical advice that causes Jamie’s irritation to reach new levels. But, an unexpected twist occurs that causes the entire situation to be reversed, addiction to be exploited, and a long sought-after win to potentially materialize.
Next, my Mind:
With a wonderfully entertaining combination of straight-forward comedy and intelligently executed, biting satirical elements, director/co-writer/co-producer John McGovern once again delivers a worthy indie short film effort in fine form. To place the concepts of sports gambling addiction, fantasy league obsession, and the drastically altered attention span it entails into a narrative involving psychiatry and the ignoring, then misuse, of a patient is actually quite shrewd and inspired, as so many people can most likely relate to the borderline insanity of gaming and other oft unhealthy distractions and how they all pull us away from things that are actually important and require dutiful attention. It’s a clever social statement wrapped in a comedic bow.
Casey is a wonderful study of both subtle and unbridled comedic delivery in his role as Dr. Robson, a raging Football Manager enthusiast–no, devotee–no, freak–no, fiend–whose professional responsibilities get way too outweighed by his determination to actually win the ever-elusive league championship and gain the associated trophy, despite his patient craving release from his problems sitting right in front of him spilling his guts. Watching Casey maneuver the character through his paces is a total riot. Likewise, Jackson’s desperately needing help patient Jamie is quite hilarious in that he’s so overtly affected by his issues and having an outlet to share them in order to get expected, soothing, paid for advice, that seeing him do this only to discover he’s being totally ignored makes us both empathize and laugh at the same time. Plus, watching the end results is even more hysterical.
In total, “Just About Managing” is such an apropos and multiple-meaning title to assign this nice little 9-minute piece of indie comedic fun that successfully entertains to the fullest extent while still making us take a look at ourselves, the compulsions and manias we indulge in, and perhaps take some lessons from it to apply. Now, please let me get back to my game! Sheesh!
As always, this is all for your consideration and comment. Until next time, thank you for reading!
