GHOSTED | Omeleto

A man meets a woman. Lucas meets Joan out at a bar one night, connecting both on the dance floor and talking together after. They eventually go to Lucas's apartment and fall asleep together, after sharing a rhapsodic night of laughing, flirting and talking. In the morning, Joan snags Lucas's t-shirt, promising to return it next time. But Lucas never sees Joan again. He's been ghosted, and the aftershock unsettles and disappoints him. Unsure of what happened, he tries to find Joan, only to discover the true meaning of ghosting. Directed and written by Chris Gray, this tender, intimate short romantic drama explores the eternal yearnings and impulses underneath the jagged contours of modern dating rituals, captured in a style that is as much a tone poem for New York City as it is a delicate, stylized evocation of the rush of falling in love. We first meet Joan and Lucas at the bar where they first encounter one another, and then we see the morning after, just as Joan promises to return Lucas's t-shirt "next time." But then Lucas is ghosted, and as he tries to piece together what happened, he navigates the painful gnaw of "what could have been" and discovers a larger mystery at work. Actor Gus Birney -- who audiences can see in shows like SOMETHING VERY BAD IS GOING TO HAPPEN -- anchors the narrative with a winsome performance as the girl of Lucas's dreams, with tremendous charm and a hint of mystery and vulnerability that haunts Lucas, even after he's been ghosted. Their romantic night together weaves in and out of the storytelling as Lucas tries to trace what happened, the textured dialogue capturing the spellbinding conversations, kisses, dancing and emotion that come from an electrifying and instant romantic connection. It also leaves clues for Lucas to follow up on as he pieces together what's happened. The layered narrative weaves together the romance and the mystery, poeticized with dreamy lighting, soft colors and plaintive, tender music. But beyond grappling with Joan's disappearance, he also opens up past grief and unresolved emotions, explored by actor Eric Tabach with subtlety and depth. As he comes to grips with Joan's larger mystery and what it means going forward, he understands the full extent of losing a future of possibility -- of future memories, a life that will never be lived, moments that will never be shared with someone. And he also comes to a way to make peace with it: to honor what was, how that person held his heart and made him better -- and then let them go. The discourse around modern dating can feel gamified, a cold calculus of odds, numbers and detachment, but GHOSTED is most powerful when it connects the seeming ego slights of dating to larger, universal emotions like grief and longing. It honors how even the briefest of connections can have true potency, affecting us deeply and even expanding our hearts and minds. Though Joan and Lucas may never have a "happily ever after," their connection was genuine, and the story finds truth and poignancy in the beauty of its evanescence -- a fleetingness that we all experience, touched as we are by mortality. GHOSTED. Courtesy of Chris Gray at https://instagram.com/ghostedtheshort.