A young woman brings a costumed stranger to her sister's dinner party.


BOB is used with permission from Drew Bierut. Learn more at https://bierutfilms.com.


Hannah is on her way to her sister Julia's dinner party. Walking to the dinner, Hannah is accosted by a drunk man but is extricated from the situation by a friendly stranger in a costume. Feeling grateful, Hannah spontaneously invites him to Julia's dinner. Julia, however, is not happy about Hannah's spontaneous guest, hoping to set the free-spirited Hannah up with a friend of hers and her husband's.

At the dinner, most people dance around the topic of the stranger and his costume, trying to be polite about the fact that he's wearing a SpongeBob costume but weirded out by it behind closed doors. As the dinner wears on -- and Hannah's would-be suitor Daniel arrives -- tensions come to a head between the sisters as their agendas clash.

Directed by Drew Bierut and written by Dan Brier, this clever and incisive short blends both gentle absurdism with a comedy of manners. Its jumping-off point is both silly and high-concept, allowing the excellent writing to explore how this group handles someone's admittedly eccentric difference and how it ruptures the social fabric. But with its well-drawn personalities and willingness to fully explore its premise, it also shows surprising emotional depth and resonance that make for a truly engaging watch.

Shot with a low-key naturalism, the writing and pacing are deft and brisk, quickly establishing the narrative groundwork: two different sisters, a dinner and then an anarchic element of a friendly stranger in a costume. Much of the action and tension is built when the dinner party starts in earnest, beginning with Julia's reaction to Hannah's last-minute guest. The scenes oscillate between different groupings, each revealing the characters' perspectives and values and mining the awkwardness for both comedy and insight. The obvious question is why the stranger is wearing a SpongeBob costume, but no one outright asks it, instead either politely alluding to it, ignoring it or joking about it.

Being on some level a comedy of manners, the film's ensemble cast collectively delivers solid, understated performances, led by actors Emma Pasarow as an earnest, spontaneous Hannah and Talia Goodman as the well-meaning but judgmental sister Julia. Kudos go to actor Dillon J Stücky as the titular character, who ably conveys regular-guy decency and affability, even in costume. Bob is generally kind, polite and friendly. But despite his civil demeanor, warmth and earlier heroics, his presence still wreaks havoc on this social occasion, leading to a more outright confrontation between the sisters.

Funny, sharply observed and finely crafted, BOB could conceivably emphasize the absurdism of the costumed stranger or hammer home the metaphor of how we're unable to deal with social differences head on. But instead, it makes a deeper, more humane choice to both reveal the man underneath it and the reason why he wears it. It also chooses to explore the connection that can happen when people truly accept each other and look beyond the surface, seeing who someone is by their words and actions. In doing so, it achieves a warmer, more open-hearted resonance, leaving audiences with nothing less than a sense of optimism and a renewed belief in the power of human connection.