By Omeleto
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Liz and Jake broke up two months ago. But thanks to the high costs of living in their city, she hasn’t been able to move out of their shared apartment yet. They’ve been co-existing uneasily, with Jake sleeping on the sofa.
But when Liz begins her search for a new apartment in earnest, Jake wants to hold off because they haven’t discussed the logistics, including who will get their dog, Milo. As they argue over who the dog should stay with, they unearth their deeper truths about their relationship and their breakup that may change their future.
Written by Ryan Sheppard and directed by Brett Cramer, this short romantic drama takes the classic short film format of two people talking in a room and injects it with a unique combination of intelligent, flinty dialogue and moments of raw vulnerability. Combined with a subtle visual style that oscillates between a moody, studied distance with almost forensic intimacy, it subtly expands the pivotal moment that’s the key to many two-hander narratives into an opportunity for both inquiry and revelation.
The narrative springboard is a moment of crisis between a couple in the process of splitting up, and while the storytelling limits its scope to one extended conversation, it deftly folds in information about their past while offering a snapshot of their current emotional climate. Liz tried to address their growing apart early on, while her boyfriend refused to deal with their issues. The writing is nimble, smart and highly relatable, but their conflict is not just about the present moment. They have deeper patterns of miscommunication — and perhaps expectations within the relationship that aren’t fully examined.
As the pair hash out their real feelings, Milo the dog becomes the subject of their conflict. As the couple bicker, the camera and editing often cut away to the dog, who seems to be listening and reacting, unnoticed by his human caretakers — much like a child amid their parents fighting. Milo, then, is a reminder that there’s more at stake than just two people’s happiness, and that many relationships’ splits have unexpected collateral damage.
The bracing, sometimes stinging dialogue is delivered with a rapid-fire, brittle defensiveness by actors Meg Cashel and Tyler Bremer, who both retreat behind their fixed perspectives and a shell of anger. But just before the moment of no return, they finally speak up, landing in a place of vulnerability and honesty that is genuinely moving, thanks to excellent performances.
“Milo” captures the dance between anxiety and avoidance in relationships, and the moment when both partners finally become in sync with one another. It has a tender, moving ending that would read as sweet in most romantic dramas. But it avoids simple sentimentality, mostly because it is honest about the emotional complexity and fragility of such hard-won moments. Honesty and openness are hard work, and sometimes they are arrived at through different routes and a degree of emotional turmoil. Sometimes, those different circuitous routes can cost the relationship. Whether or not we can maintain faith, loyalty and patience with this dance becomes a central question of commitment — one that Milo seems to have lost his patience with, as he waits for his caretakers to figure it out and attends to his own needs in the meanwhile.
Transcript provided by YouTube:
um can you please leave me alone i’m
trying to pee i just want to know what’s
going on i feel like if you’re looking
at apartments i should know about it we
said i was going to move out at the end
of the month so what’s the problem okay
yeah but there’s still like a lot of
logistics involved that we should
discuss we talked about this two months
ago when we broke up i have the money to
move out now you have the money to stay
we discussed this okay we discussed
every imaginable detail it’s like a
personal dig at me for being so
detail-oriented you know a lot of people
think it’s one of my best qualities i
didn’t wake up this morning and randomly
decide to move out okay you’re really
stressing me out so please leave me
alone stressing you out i’m just trying
to talk to you you’re also stressing him
out which makes his ibs crazy and i
really don’t want to have to be the one
to pick up his diarrhea later okay so
now it’s my fault that our dog has ibs
you know we haven’t technically come to
an agreement on who’s going to keep milo
i really think you should cancel these
apartment visits so we could talk
through some of these logistics why do
you keep saying logistics there’s
nothing left to figure out we divided up
the rules of toilet paper i thought that
was a good idea we have so many i was
just trying to help okay you know how
you could help me you could let me go
look at apartments but what about milo
you’re just taking him um i bathe him i
feed him i give him his medication and i
pick up his [ __ ] so yes i am taking him
and you know that the only reason you’re
bringing that up is to piss me off mine
was obsessed with me we have a bond
other people have noticed it milo has to
bring the size of a peanut okay so he
cares about you the same way that a
child thinks a teenager next door is
cool and it’s really easy to be the cool
teenager when you take zero
responsibility for yourself next door
wait you think milo thinks of me as a
neighbor that is so [ __ ] up i always
consider myself milo’s father but i’m at
least a brother to him not some [ __ ]
neighbor okay well you thought of me as
your girlfriend and treated me like your
roommate so at least you’re consistent
in your denials of reality you know i’m
the one who found milo i was the first
one to hold him at the shelter i named
him you named him for milo noticed but
you got the name wrong okay milo’s the
cat oh this is the dog [ __ ] seriously
yeah that movie also has like 100 animal
rights violations they killed like 20
cats and three animals in the river so i
don’t exactly think that you should be
proud about naming him milo for the last
two months of sleeping in separate rooms
milo has spent most nights with me don’t
flatter yourself he always sleeps on the
couch you’re in his spot also you spent
six years sleeping next to me and didn’t
give a [ __ ] about me for most of them so
like maybe we’re just like actual proof
that sometimes a place to sleep is like
just a place to sleep
[ __ ] i really have to go okay can we
talk about this when you get back there
is nothing to talk about you broke up
with me in case you forgot i know but
it’s complicated it’s really not
complicated it’s like really really not
you were honest with me for the first
time and now you’re freaked out so
you’re backpedaling you literally told
me that you weren’t happy with me
anymore you said that and i’ve been
trying to tell you for so long that
something had changed but you pushed me
away and you denied my concerns and you
called me crazy so like yeah i didn’t
have the guts to break up with you but
you didn’t have the guts to tell me that
you had lost interest in the
relationship okay i did not lose yes you
did stop
stop
like you did and honestly it’s okay it
really is i think that you did what i
should have done a really really long
time ago
and i know that you think i’m being like
cold and distant right now but i tried
i like really really really tried
i had this journal that i used to write
in when i felt like you weren’t
listening to me and i shared it with you
so you could like see how serious i was
about this and how much this mattered to
me you didn’t even talk to me about it
do you know how hurtful that is
i gave you a list of couple therapists
you didn’t even look at the list so like
yeah i feel like i cared about the
relationship more than you did
and i still felt like rome was gonna be
like this like magical trip and like
this phenomenal reset button for us like
i was so excited like i wrote a song
like i used to do when we were happy
and then you canceled the trip which
like honestly like is really fine like
it’s totally okay like it’s really good
like i think i was just being naive but
i do think it was pretty [ __ ] lame
that it took you not wanting to spend
money on a trip with me for you to be
honest about your feelings
that isn’t true
don’t say it like that look we both got
busy things unraveled and we grew apart
but i think it’s fixable
i don’t
don’t you want to be happy
i have to call
wait wait wait wait lizzy hold on what
what are you doing i’m calling one of
the therapists that you emailed me don’t
call one of the therapists you don’t
have anything to prove to me just no no
you’re right a trip to italy is not
gonna fix this i’m taking action jake
please stop just hang up the phone okay
that’s ringing
hi um i was hoping i could book some
time for me and my ex-girlfriend first
thing monday morning uh it’s not as
weird as it sounds we we still live
together and we still love each other
very much she doesn’t take me seriously
anymore and
honestly she shouldn’t
i hurt her too much and
i allowed her to feel unloved
and unappreciated and
i took her for granted
and i know that small gestures or taking
more responsibility with milo isn’t
going to be enough
i really messed up the most important
relationship of my life and
i was just hoping i could maybe get the
chance to tell you all about it
you can call me back at this number
i really want to hear the song hero no
it’s so stupid oh no i want to hear it
oh take me to rome
where my ancestors call home
we’re laughing pasta all day
oh we dreamt of this fate
from our very first date
and we’re finally on
our way
[Music]
you
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This post was previously published on YouTube.
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