GIRLFRIEND’S DAY

US, 2017, 71 minutes, Colour.
Bob Odkenirk, Amber Tamblyn, Stacey Keach, Alex Karpovsky, Kevin O' Grady, Larry Fessenden, Natasha Lyonne.
Directed by Michael Paul Stephenson.

This is a brief drama, starring vehicle for writer and producer, Bob Odenkirk.

The title refers to the proclamation of a special holiday in the city, celebrating the local industry, the production of greeting cards. This seems rather a stretch in terms of realism but the audience has to accept this…

Bob Odenkirk plays a veteran card writer who has fallen on hard times, his wife leaving him, drinking, getting the sack. While the politicians announce Girlfriend’s Day, his previous employer wants him to produce a winning greeting card. This leads to what might be called industrial espionage, powerful business figures, two brothers, both played by Stacey Keach, set private detectives and thugs on him. A young woman (Amber Tamblyn) approaches him – and is later revealed to be part of the plot.

There are a range of supporting characters including those who work in the greeting cards office, one reciting poetry at a nightclub, a range of thugs and detectives, a former writer fallen on hard times, a homeless man in the street.

A very brief running time – a kind of 21st-century film noir.

1. The strange world of gift cards? Implement, popularity, writer’s block, politics, confidence tricks, murder and violence?

2. The American city, the card company and the officers, apartments, stores, bars, the world of violence, private detectives, police? The musical score?

3. The focus on Larry Wentworth, his skill at composing cards, writer’s block, his wife leaving him, drinking, at the office, his being sacked? Retiring home, lewd monstrous imagination? Visiting the bars, his friends, the past successful artist writing his novel, only three words? Chat at the bar? His various friends? The beggar on the street? Visiting his ex-wife, the cat, her new husband? His friend and confidante?

4. The bar, the visit from the boss, his commission to secretly create a card? Trying to use his imagination? The encounter with Jill? The bond, sexual relationship? At her shop? At home, the demand for the rent, the landlord getting him to take out his nephew? The detectives and surveillance?

5. The politicians, creating Girlfriends Day, the purpose, the razzmatazz? The competitiveness? The range of people commenting on cards and the importance in their lives?

6. The brothers, thugs, competitiveness, interviews with Larry, violence?

7. The private detectives, the violence, the thugs and the violence? Larry discovering Jill as part of the plan?

8. The card, Jill and her response, Larry not wanting to communicate it, burning it?

9. The world of the cards, the staff, the poets and recitations in clubs?

10. An offbeat example of 21st-century film noir?