Based on a story by T.C. Boyle, Adam Hall’s strangely captivating short My Pain Is Worse Than Your Pain is the tale of a middle-aged man embarking on a journey of reckless behaviour as he foolishly listens to the desires of his heart, instead of the more reasonable voice in his head. Opening with a shot of his antihero Gary swigging an unknown substance from a hip flask, eyeing himself in the mirror before pulling a ski-mask over his face, Hall lets his audience know early on in proceedings exactly what they should expect from his short. This isn’t going to be a light-hearted romp centred around comedic mistakes, this is a film of brooding self-reflection, a film about regret…a film about pain.

Minutes into the film and we’re witnessing Hall’s protagonist laid out on the floor, experiencing the physical pain of a broken leg and the emotional pain from the embarrassment of his situation. And just in case the tone of the film wasn’t quite set, the gravelly tones of Middleton’s narration leave us with no doubt of the direction this short is heading – as Gary starts to describe a long-cold winter of hard-drinking and isolation.

“You want pain? Jessica filed for divorce before they even got the pin in my leg”

Atmosphere plays a large part in the success of Hall’s film, with the Director stating that their main goal as a team of filmmakers was to capture the tone of the story. It wasn’t a simple decision to go down the dark and serious route though, Boyle’s story contains comedic elements based around the mundane existence of his characters, but Hall admits he “saw it as more of a drama than a comedy”.

Driven along by a powerful performance from Clark Middleton (Kill Bill, Fringe), MPIWTYP is a thought-provoking character study that hangs on the believability of its misguided protagonist. “Clark was the only actor I wanted to make this film with”, says Hall when asked about the casting for his film, “I first saw him in Kill Bill Vol. 2 and kept tabs on him since then. Whether it’s one scene in a movie or TV show or a play, Clark is just great in everything he does. We both live in New York and we met and talked about the story, movies and our approach to work and we really hit it off. Clark was in town for about month before he went to shoot Snowpiercer and he really gave this piece his full attention — once he commits to something he is all in. I learned so much from Clark, he’s one-of-a-kind”.

Despite the strong performance from his lead and the darkly poetic dialogue of the script, the director used another method to construct the mood of his piece. “The way I tried to set the tone was through music”, Hall told Short of the Week, “Jherek Bischoff’s piece ‘Closer To Closure’ was what we built the structure of the movie on. It starts things off then comes back in at the end to reinforce the idea that things aren’t really ever going to change”.

“Fate doesn’t leave you with any margin for hope or redemption or even change…luck is different. Luck can change! Bad luck anyway”

Having spent much of his recent filmmaking ventures exploring the world of music videos, Hall describes the production of MPIWTYP as a way of getting “back to making the things that I wanted to make”. Comparing the process of adapting Boyle’s story to that of “learning storytelling from one of the masters” it’s clear from speaking to the director this short is a real labour of love for him and that shines through in his film. This is assured, confident filmmaking – no tricks, no gimmicks – just good old fashioned character-driven narrative that leaves you hungry for more.