PORTLAND IS THE NEW PORTLAND | Omeleto

A man makes music. Jesse is a musician in his 30s who lives with his mother in Portland. Not Portland, Oregon, but a town in the state of New York, and there is no thriving local music scene. Jesse is passionate about music, so to fill the void of music and community in his life, he records songs himself, invents numerous fictional bands and documents their news and stories in notebooks. When a major music magazine takes interest in his label, Jesse is thrilled, but their requests for photos and interviews force him to keep up the facade in ever more elaborate ways, like hiring local teens to pose as band members. His efforts create tension with his mother and a local school principal, and when the situation spins out of control, Jesse finds himself in a difficult place. Directed by Christopher Scamurra and written by Nicholas Reynolds and Christopher Scamurra, this amiable, oddball short dramedy is a wry, affectionate portrait of a dreamer and doer who takes DIY to a whole other level as he dreams up the music scene of his dreams. Jesse doesn't have much going for him -- he has no job, car or friends, and he lives at home with his mother. However, he possesses a genuine passion and talent for music, as well as a big imagination and yearning, which lead him into a series of misadventures and unexpected places. Shot with a low-key, lo-fi naturalism that would fit in seamlessly with the 90s vibe it's inspired by, the storytelling is embroidered with fun detail -- just the band names alone are hilarious -- but it's also resolutely character-centered, focused on Jesse's world and efforts to capitalize on an unusual opportunity. As played by actor Matthew Danger Lippman with a disarming gentle introversion, Jesse is a creative misfit, an awkward but gifted eccentric who doesn't quite fit into the world around him. So with his music and his energy, he makes his own world, but he's so consumed by this imaginative milieu and his love of music that he's lost touch with what seems normal and what doesn't. His blunt, unsympathetic mother -- played with jagged weariness by veteran actor Sioban Fallon Hogan -- catches wind of what's going on, so she takes drastic action and sends her son away to an institution. It's an unmistakable low point for Jesse, and the film's looseness shifts into a more melancholic register, especially as he sinks into depression. But the intricacy and intrepidness he showed in his invented world get sparked again, as he works on a way to escape. Shaggy, PORTLAND IS THE NEW PORTLAND is as sly and inventive as its main character, and it has a few surprises up its sleeve in its final section, including an appearance by beloved THE OFFICE actor Creed Bratton that reveals some dimensions in the film's storytelling and injects an irrepressible optimism back into the proceedings. Jesse may yet find his way out of his predicament, though we're left bemused at the end -- and perhaps wondering what role delusion plays for the prodigiously creative. But then again, perhaps we all need some degree of delusion to make the impossible possible, especially in a world with little imagination. PORTLAND IS THE NEW PORTLAND. Courtesy of Christopher Scamurra at https://portlandisthenewportland.com.