Jackie and Molly may have broken up, but they still have to spend their days together acting like best friends in their jobs as stand-in actors on a seemingly basic sitcom called 2 Millennial Girls. With her directorial debut Second Team, director Ria Pavia defies expectations by playing with the established and well-known codes/tropes of multiple genres to deliver a fun, exciting, surprising, witty, and clever comedy that leaves you wanting for more.

I cannot stress this enough, Second Team is one of the best comedic surprises I have had in a long time! With multiple layers, it keeps on giving until the last second, with Spider Chambers’ sharp edit enhancing the film's comedy and helping to retain the audience’s engagement in an incredibly efficient manner. When the film begins, I have to admit that I was the first one to roll my eyes, expecting yet another shallow and pedestrian parody of film sets. Very quickly though, I was proven wrong! The film reveals its self-awareness and does not solely rely on the gimmick of a (bad) show within the film. From there, my newfound careful optimism swiftly turned into full-blown investment, as the short unfolds at a very enjoyable pace, revealing trick after trick throughout its 10-minute run-time.

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Danielle Savre (L) and Francia Raisa star as feuding ex-lovers in Ria Pavia's Second Team[/caption]

The premise is so unusual and so awkward - two fantastic ingredients for comedy - that I assumed it was completely invented by Pavia and writer Anni Weisband. Again my expectations were proven wrong when Pavia shared with us that it's actually based on a true story: “the script and actors were lame, but the stand-ins for the stars had previously been romantically involved and recently broke up so watching their forced interactions kept video village endlessly entertained”. Using this real-life situation as the inspiration for their short, they used it as the starting point for a narrative which identified the true comedic potential of the situation.

Where the film really succeeds though is in how seamlessly it goes back and forth between what’s happening on set and what’s happening at video village with the crew. By doing this, Pavia ultimately creates two storylines, each time placing us in two different perspectives each with their own particular sense of humor. By regularly switching the point-of-view throughout Second Team you start to feel as if you're part of the crew on set. Whether in a director's chair alongside the filmmakers, first reacting to the mind-numbing TV show they're filming and then to the drama unfolding between the two stand-ins, or out on the floor getting to know the personalities of the cast, this approach creates a kind of cinematic echo that magnifies how fun and delightfully dramatic this short really is.

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Chester Lockhart delivers a lot of the short's killer lines[/caption]

The film had all the elements to work, but to actually land, the cast had to deliver. The chemistry between Francia Raisa and Danielle Savre is so captivating, as one gets increasingly frustrated, the other is amused and you can't wait to see what will happen next between these ex-lovers. The way they distort and use the lines their characters are supposed to be saying to communicate is ridiculously fun to watch. I would also add that I found it quite fun to see the two renditions of the same scene, which ultimately proves that even the most basic and bland conversation can be delivered in a very entertaining way.

The zingers that came from behind the monitors, where the crew are all watching this unexpected drama unfold, are hilarious, their reactions summing up exactly how we feel as viewers. Props need to be given to Chester Lockhart though. Their character is potentially the one the audience identifies with the most, even though most of us (unfortunately) probably got the Nickelback reference, their evolving delivery of each subtle jab constantly nails it, wrapping the film with the perfect line: “That is definitely not in the script”.

Second Team started its festival journey back in that infamous year that was 2020, with a first selection at the Palm Springs ShortFest, which was then followed by a raft of other festivals ahead of its online debut on S/W today. In addition to her ongoing work as an acting coach on Freeform’s grown-ish, to our great delight, Pavia is currently developing Second Team as a series.