Shorts: Discomfort Takes a Deeper Detour with Blake Rice’s ‘DISC’

Suppose you’re attending an out-of-town business trip and you strike up a connection with someone so strong that you invite them back to your hotel room. When you wake up the next morning, the notion your guest overstaying their welcome might be the biggest source of anxiety. What will you say to them? How will you get them to leave? What if you need them to help you with something related to the most intimate parts of you…and not in a sexy way? Blake Rice follows up his award-winning short film, Tea, with DISC, a sharp, dark comedy about how real life inconveniences can thwart our entire day.

In the opening shots of his latest film, Rice keeps the camera tight on Victoria Ratermanis’ face as her Alex wakes up in a strange hotel room. Before she crawls out of bed, her hands find her cheeks and eyes before they move around her mouth. On her way to the bathroom, Jim Cummings’ Carey wakes up, and asks if she is going to an upcoming product and media talk, and she needs to rush out because she is the one speaking. As Carey makes coffee (the first time I’ve probably seen a character make use of a hotel coffee pot), Alex returns to tell him that her menstrual disc is lodged so tightly that she needs his assistance. “Do you want my to call the front desk?” he asks her through the bathroom door.

Alex assures Carey since the hesitation is written all over his face. “We’re going to do this together, because I can’t do it on my own,” she says, the managerial tone from her presentation creeping into this encounter. With DISC and Tea, it’s refreshing to see how Rice is interested in confronting unexpected physical relationships between people whether it be a bee sting or an uncompromising tampon alternative. It’s safe to assume that these two people have become familiar with each other’s bodies since they arrived at this hotel room the night before, but Rice plays with how the circumstances of a given situation can alter our perspective of what’s going on.

As nice guy Carey tries to assist, housekeeping knocks on the door. This hotel employee might misconstrue Alex’s moans and wails as the sounds from what transpired last night, as Alex buckles down and tries to relax. If you watch the dislodging on mute, it might appear that Alex and Carey are having another go: her leg up over Carey’s shoulder as he is on his knees, her hand tight on the towel bar, and Carey’s face trembling with fervor.

Ratermanis (familiar to audiences from the Oscar-nominated A Lien) and Cummings are great together, and Alex’s desperation folds nicely into Carey’s aw-shucks, willing demeanor. The first thing Carey does when he gets up, only in his tighty whities, is put on his conference lanyard, and Cummings (an actor I will always be thrilled to see…rent The Beta Test–you’re welcome) wears it like a uniform.

Conferences like these might have a reputation for stale conversation or sterile surroundings, but that doesn’t mean humanity can’t find its way in. If you found yourself in such a bind, you might hope that you have Alex’s guidance or Carey’s dedication. Or Rice with his camera at the ready.

DISC will next play Palm Springs International Shortfest in July.