Once upon a pandemic, writer and director Sophie Brooks decided that, rather than taking up baking sourdough bread like the rest of us, she would work on a film script—“Oh, Hi!” to be exact. The self-imposed rules of this creative challenge? Keep it simple, or as simple as one can get while wrestling with the complexities of human relationships from a distance. With a minimal cast and even fewer locations, Brooks aimed to craft a film that wouldn’t cause her bank account to spontaneously combust.
Hats off to the crew! Thanks to Brooks, cinematographer Conor Murphy, production designer April Lasky, and editor Kayla Emter, the film feels more expansive than your favorite Zoom call that has gone sideways. Despite most of the story happening during a less-than-ideal getaway for Iris (Molly Gordon) and Isaac (Logan Lerman), the emotional chaos feels as grand as a soap opera—better grab your popcorn.
Among the cinematic razzle-dazzle employed, Brooks and Emter’s use of montages deserves a standing ovation. These montages serve as a gateway to Iris’s fevered imaginations—sometimes joyful, often disastrous—as she leaps to conclusions that would make even a conspiracy theorist raise an eyebrow.
Not to be outdone, the team only needed two reshoots after their 21-day house-bound shoot in good ol’ Germantown, NY. The first had Iris making French toast—yes, you read that right, folks, the breakfast of champions—and the second saw her scrolling through the depths of despair for relationship advice fit for a rom-com gone horribly wrong.
With a collection of photographic references in hand, Brooks and her team turned a Brooklyn stage into a hollow echo of a house—like a Craigslist listing that got lost in translation. By crafting a slow push-in on Gordon as the lights dimmed, they aimed to reenact that feeling of being slowly dragged into an emotional black hole. Who wouldn’t want to be sucked into that, am I right?
Brooks can’t help but gush over one sequence that ties the whole self-indulgent doomscrolling adventure together: “My art department crafted a video of Iris’s searches, and Molly, bless her heart, threw in some improvised gems. It’s a whimsical way to capture what happens when you’ve spiraled so far down that your phone becomes your only confidant. Spoiler alert: it’s not quite what you need.”
As “Oh, Hi!” unfolds, it dances along that fine line of bad decisions and existential musings. The balance is crucial, like trying to walk a tightrope between rom-com and “What were you thinking?” It’s as if Brooks had a crystal ball warning against presenting women as mere “crazy” and men as “jerks” when, in reality, we’re all just delightful little messes. Brooks and her team played with the characters’ extremes, leading us to wonder how many takes were done while saying, “Let’s find that sweet spot just before it’s awkward.”
The clever perspective in the montages, particularly the doomscroll sequences, is what makes this film hit home in a way that’s both relatable and laughably tragic. Each montage reveals Iris’s overly optimistic interpretation of their charming arrival at the house, wholly bathed in picturesque greens and blues. Brooks improvised with her cast during on-location shooting—who knew unpacking groceries could be such a creative endeavor? And if you thought scriptwriting is no fun, well, just wait until you see what they pulled out of the garden during a moment of unintentional spontaneity.
The meticulous planning paired with nimble improvisation resulted in Brooks creating a cinematic experience that screams, “We had a plan, but we rolled with the punches!” It’s like making a gourmet meal while realizing you’re out of half the ingredients—somehow it all comes together in a way that connoisseurs might appreciate, or at the very least, affects your sense of reality. Now playing in theaters, “Oh, Hi!” is the film you didn’t know you needed while critically analyzing your own scrolling habits. Enjoy the show!
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