Tribeca: “Rare Birds” is in Rare Form
The best relationships in stories are the ones that don’t make sense on paper. The Odd Couple-esque combination that puts two people, however dissimilar, in the same place at the same time and a connection sparks. It’s a theme director Lily Weisberg returns to in her work time and again. Weisberg’s Tribeca world-premiering short film, Rare Birds, written by Michael Bloom, is about one such intergenerational, odd-on-paper relationship. In its sweetly strange premise and execution, Rare Birds is a rare gift indeed.
Jerry (Tony Macht) works at an antique store in a small town, but he’s on the verge of being fired. He’s the typical lost, early-twentysomething who wants to figure out what comes next in his life. The only time of year he has figured out is summertime. Something about the simplicity of those months makes sense to Jerry. It’s also when he worked as a camp counselor and met twelve-year-old Candice (Zoe Ziegler). Candice thinks Jerry is the best person in the world, and all she wants is to play a game of pick-up basketball with him.
Courtesy of Rare Birds
The dynamic between Jerry and Candice is difficult to understand. It doesn’t fit in the boxes that usually exist when we define the relationships that happen between people. Jerry and Candice are both weirdos who don’t fit in well. They’re strange, but they get each other. And isn’t that what we’re all looking for? Not in the romantic sense, but in the platonic, perhaps familial sense, or some mix of the two. What’s clear is that there’s a bond between them, one born out of the ineffable way two people are drawn to each other. Sometimes that bond is two goofballs who like playing basketball together. Maybe that basketball game isn’t the answer to the rest of their lives, but it makes sense for now, and that’s enough.
Courtesy of Rare Birds
Rare Birds is a love letter to the way we’re able to find parallels with people we have nothing in common with. Jerry and Candice have a rare, inexplicable bond. It’s a gift to find someone who gets you when you’re living in a world you don’t understand and that doesn’t understand you back. Ziegler and Macht are a lovely duo. They’re warm and weird when the film calls for it, and introspective when Rare Birds’ third character, shop owner Henry (Joseph R. Sicari), contemplates his own life as he watches the bickering young people.
The beauty of films is that they can capture relationships that are tough to categorize. Jerry and Candice are kindred spirits, if you want a simple explanation. Rare Birds transcends that by reveling in its two main characters who, like the antique store much of the film takes place in, are hidden gems. Maybe they’re a little dusty and not understood by a lot of people, but there’s someone out there who gets them.
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