Hardly Working

Focusing on the daily lives of the NPC's (Non-Playable Characters) in a video game seems like an original concept for a fun short film. However, 'Hardly Working' wasn't it. I did enjoy about the first two minutes, but much like the existences of these NPC's, the humor in this (overlong) short is just way too one-dimensional. The same joke is repeated over and over as the 'comedy' grows stale at an astonishing pace. Video games contain glitches and continuity errors, we get it. Even more grating is the unrelenting presence of an unbearably smug voice-over, which tells us exactly what we can already see happening on the screen (presumably for comedic effect), while occasionally throwing in some pseudo-intellectual musings that are supposed to make this a commentary on the numbing nature of capitalism. These comments come across as overly didactic and conceited, all while not being nearly as clever as intended.

The whole thing feels like a TikTok reel stretched out to short film length and even at 20 minutes, 'Hardly Working' considerably overstays its welcome. It pisses me off, because this feels like a misguided waste of an interesting premise. But maybe I'm overrating its potential and this was just always meant to be a 5-minute YouTube video rather than a fully realized short film.