“Living With Grandma,” directed by Finise Avery

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San Diego Short Film Festival

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Comedy

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TRT 13:33

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Louie (Charles J. Solis), a down-on-his-luck gambler who recently parted ways with a very large sum of money, moves in with his grandmother, Rose (Bonnie Rose). Multigenerational hijinks ensue.

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If you swing at everything, you’re going to eventually connect. “Living With Grandma” swings at multiple comedic genres, from wry slice-of-life observations to satire (e.g., Louie’s dating app of choice is The Right Stuff, because of course it is) to farce to prop comedy. Mostly it’s situational comedy, or at least situational-comedy adjacent – and if it were lengthened and serialized it would not be wildly out of place in the weekly roundup of streaming service sitcoms.

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The farce scene, with Rose unintentionally ordering a bunch of pizzas via an Alexa-like device, sticks out in a couple of ways. First, the soundtrack during the scene would be appropriately farcical if this were taking place in a British mansion among nobility, but feels wildly out of place for schlubs in a New York apartment. Second, it seems like the only point in the film at which Avery and her writing team were aiming for guffaws – it mostly works, but it has a completely different kind of energy from every other scene.

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The performances are mostly great. Rose plays Rose very broadly throughout almost the entire film. Solis plays Louie as a little aloof for his circumstances – which is actually a good chemistry match for Rose’s performance. The standout is Jordan Waller, who plays Louie’s friend Joey. Joey is a device to move Louie’s plot along, but Waller’s delivery and timing are exquisite in the small amount of screen time he’s given.

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Most of the rest of the production is well done, with great use of location, well-dressed sets and interesting framing. There’s an early standout scene with Joey waking up Louie, who is late for his grandfather’s funeral – it’s shot in a way that makes Louie look small and pathetic without any dialog telling us he’s small and pathetic.

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Overall, it’s a strong, if occasionally uneven, film.