Sofa, So Good Review

Set in Dayton, Ohio, Sofa, So Good is set throughout one afternoon when two cousins attempt to move a second-hand sofa from one side of the town to the other. After getting rid of their old broken sofa, they manage to find a perfectly good – and not too expensive – sofa: the only problem is that it is on the opposite side of town from their home, and they are going to have to carry it by hand after all other modes of transportation fail. As they walk through the city, the audience gets to know its geography as well as its rather quirky and absurd inhabitants.

The two main actors are excellent. Their chemistry together is largely what the film relies on their relationship as they are the only two characters consistently on screen. Admittedly, the two are very funny together, combining physical comedy with jokes that do not always land. As they carry the sofa with them neighbourhood after neighbourhood, the audience starts to get to know them on a more intimate level. While there could have been more exploration of the characters’ backstories, it does not necessarily feel like the movie is lacking in anything as it can still develop its protagonists as fully-fledged individuals.

From a writing point of view, the movie also does a good job with its stakes. While the question of carrying a sofa across the city may seem irrelevant at first, the movie does a good job of making us feel like this is the most important thing in the characters’ lives on which everything depends for its entire runtime. The main conflict is similarly worked very well within the plot narrative and is often re-introduced during the film to remind us that taking the sofa from one side of town to the other is not going to be easy as new challenges and difficulties keep arising on the way.

Despite its rather short runtime – the film is only a little over an hour long – the film would have benefitted from a tighter pace and editing. Although the beginning scenes are funny, it takes too long to get the story going as this is a rather simple premise that could have been started right away rather than having an introductory first sequence. At the same time, it also seems to drag its last act: it might be because the audience already knows how the film is going to end inevitably, but the last few scenes could have been a lot more impactful if the film did not feel the need to tie everything together nicely to conclude it.

Overall, Sofa, So Good is a film that has a lot of potential and a very promising directorial debut for the Thiele Brothers whose career I will be very excited to follow next While it may not be excellent in pacing, the movie does its job well in terms of entertainment and making the audience laugh for its entire runtime. For all its faults, at least this movie tries to do something new with a clever use of both humour and the film form itself – the fact that it is all in black and white is an interesting and original choice – in the way it tells its story.