NOTHING REALLY HAPPENS
Feature Film. 1hr 40min. Comedy/Thriller/Sci Fi
A mattress store owner experiences increasingly surreal anomalies in his life that put strain on his relationships with friends, family, and his own humanity.
SYNOPSIS:
Dave Stimple, an unfocused mattress store owner, is having issues connecting with those around him. As his relationships with his wife, friends, and his own humanity seem to be devolving, increasingly distracting anomalies begin to take over his reality. But his issues may not be as internal as they seem in this surreal comedy from Houston, TX.
DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
You're having a conversation with someone.
They're nodding along as you speak, intently listening to every word of your well thought out perspective. You're engaged in a meaningful discussion. Except you're not. They don't care. You're so wrapped up in what you're saying that you don't seem to notice the blank stare in their eyes as they smile and nod while you drone on and on... and on. They interrupt you mid-sentence with a response that you realize has nothing to do with what you were saying. This mildly irritates you. Now you've lost focus on the conversation and tuned them out. Your mind wanders as you think of how to continue your point as soon as there's a break in their thought.
You're having having a conversation with someone... and neither of you cares.
Everything that happens in Nothing Really Happens happened. I mean, nothing happened... really, so nothing happening has all happened at some point and ad infinitum. If you are confused by what I am communicating, that is okay.
This film is about communication. Specifically, it's about people communicating poorly. For some, this is an intentional trait and others just lack the self awareness to interact effectively. I wanted to tell a story that looks through the eyes of a singular perspective and play with the idea of how flawed the human mind can be. How you might not always be able to trust that what you're seeing is really what you're seeing and how skewed an interaction can seem when you're only getting one side of a story. An absurd story at that, which quickly spirals into various states of confusion for everyone involved.
There was a segment of This American Life I listened to a few years ago called "I Believe I Can Fly". It explored the life and family of a semi-successful pseudoscience author and ultimately inspired the narrative framework of our film. I thought it would be interesting to meet someone who dived head first into some of these not so proven "scientific" teachings in an attempt to help solve the problems of those around him using fairly unorthodox methods.
Nothing Really Happens is a 4 year labor of love by a small cast and crew who worked tirelessly together on a limited budget to create something we're proud of. We've learned a great deal through the incredible experience of making this film and built lifelong friendships in the process.
