Director’s Statement

When Tasha first approached me with this script I had an instant connection. Dry and dark humor has always been my genre, and this was a perfect opportunity to explore it more. But with dark humor certainly comes challenges in balancing delicate topics.

The first big question that really stuck out to me regarding the story was, how do you make a guy like Bob sympathetic? How do you root for a voyeuristic shut-in who watches his cute neighbor from across the street without her knowledge or consent? But I quickly realized that there’s a little bit of Bob in everybody.

Especially coming out of such a crazy couple years with Covid-19. The desire to do more and be more. The desire to break free from our mundane lives. And most of all the desire to help others — even if just in fantasy because we sometimes don’t have much to offer anyway. It’s a hero complex that, for most of us, has resulted from being forced to casually and helplessly watch the world burn. Bob is all of us: dreaming of endless ways to save a world that doesn’t want or need our help.

I think we can find that depressing or we can find that freeing. Sometimes the uncontrollable chaos that fills you with dread is completely outside of your power. Free yourself of the burden of worry, and find something you do have the power to change. Because although Bob is an example of a hero complex gone somewhat wrong, through his story maybe we can all learn a thing or two about what’s right. Maybe on the flip side, you can be the person that doesn’t need the saving. Or maybe, as Bob would say, life is just full of little mysteries.

James Sunshine