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Basically an exercise in breaking the fourth wall, this is a very funny, self-referential short film on the particularly fickle nature of recognisability as opposed to fame. It has a sharp, well observed script by Lauren Collins and Ben Lewis and is well directed by the latter in his debut. It is less than ten minutes long but it's a bright and breezy satire on our social media obsessed culture and the difficulty that certain kinds of reasonably well known people have adjusting to normal life when their 15 minutes are up.The film stars Collins in a great performance as Demi, a 28-year-old actress who formerly starred in a "moderately successful Canadian teen soap." Considering that Collins is best known for her role as the high school mean girl Paige Michalchuk in "Degrassi: The Next Generation" (which I love in spite of the fact that I am about twice the age of its target audience!), there is certainly a sense of art imitating life. While Demi is seemingly not Lauren Collins by any other name, the short film was inspired by her real life experiences. Demi is a nice, likable, somewhat neurotic character who is trying to find her place in the world. She does not allow her recognisability to go to her head in an arrogant or conceited manner but it occupies the forefront of her thoughts. Although she frequently claims in her internal monologue and little asides to the camera that being recognised is a source of anxiety to her, it is clear that she likes it on one level. It's hard to blame her for that, really. Demi certainly means well but her situation is not helped by the fact that she can talk of little outside of her starring role on "that show" to the point that she almost seems to define herself by it.After dipping her toe in the tricky world of online dating for the first time, Demi meets a ridiculously nice, earnest, down-to-earth doctor named Alan Bauer, played very well by Lewis who is another "Degrassi" alum appropriately enough. He is a paediatrics resident at the Hospital for Sick Children (otherwise known as "SickKids") in Toronto and Demi almost insults him when she tells him that she has always thought that "SickKids" sounds like a made-up name. Alan's dedication to his job means that he has little time to watch television and he consequently has never heard of "that show." This is a slight source of disappointment to Demi. I have to admit that I would probably feel the same way in her place! During their date, Demi proceeds to embarrass herself by assuming that one of the café patrons is a fan of hers when he is actually the uncle of one of Alan's previous patients, a young boy with asthma. Dan is also a little taken back when she tells him that (a) she has an "online stalker" who retweets everything that she says and (b) she understands what is like to have asthma as her character had an asthmatic attack in the season finale of Season Six. There is a very effective contrast between Demi, who doesn't really live in the real world, and Dan, who most certainly does.There was nice "Degrassi" in-jokes throughout but my favourite was one of Demi's co-stars being described as "that rap guy." This is a reference to the fact that Drake (then going by his real name Aubrey Graham) got his start on the series and was one of its main stars for its first seven seasons. He'll always be Jimmy Brooks to me, not least because I hate rap with a passion. I imagine that "Degrassi" actors are asked, "Do you know Drake?" pretty regularly!Overall, this is a very enjoyable satirical swipe at modern culture but a (purposefully) well-intentioned one.
