Welcome to “Your Weekly Short,” a new feature on LakeFrontRow.com that will showcase one short from a Wisconsin filmmaker each week, every week. Brace thy face.
In Aaron Yonda’s short “Greeting Card Writer,” a parody of Hallmark’s feigned sincerity is expected from the title alone. Because let’s be honest: in an industry dedicated to compassion and empathy, the card writers themselves seem so bereft of feeling anything whatsoever. Yonda stars as the title character, a nameless, grungy greeting card writer who appears to take little pleasure in his middling profession, despite his claims that few are capable of reproducing his unique brand of salutations. Yonda plays the role as deliberately flavorless, a creepily blase twenty-something you probably wouldn’t grab a beer with after work, especially considering what he does with the bottles for creative inspiration.
You definitely wouldn’t want to buy one of his cards. “Greeting Card Writer’s” humor, like the cards themselves, is hit-or-miss. Yonda’s jokes land neatly when his character’s crummy discomfort is packaged in quick bursts. “For a Special Teamster Who’s 50” is short and sweet, a better alternative to the high school graduation card that drones on despite saying so very little. It’s in these overstretched jokes that Yonda loses his way, like a discarded Michael Scott monologue or the unfortunate filmography of Jared Hess. His short only succeeds when it takes cursory glances in its humor, an implied understanding of the three dollar contrivances found in everyone’s least favorite corner of the drug store.
Yonda is best known for his popular web series Chad Vader, which follows the exploits of the Dark Lord day-shift manager at a fictional supermarket (psst the Willy Street Coop). “Greeting Card Writer” draws that same offbeat humor from day-to-day minutiae, and it ultimately makes for an amusing watch. Musician Andrew Yonda belts out a squeaky rewrite over a certain Beatles guitar riff, and its thrill-seeking subject goes to absurd lengths to mine emotion. In his introduction, Yonda muses there’s little else in the way of professions for English majors. Speaking personally as a former English major struggling to start a website, I take offense. Speaking professionally, I agree. They make cards for regret, right?