A dead man has a job interview.
A plot line that might sound like a typical gangster film setting turns out to be something completely unexpected, unless you were expecting a dead man being interviewed. And this is where director and creator Tyler Russo got creative with the idea. ‘Goodbye’ is frighting, chilling and somewhat spiritually uplifting – after a man dies in a car accident, a four-faced kabuki mask donned automaton conducts a job interview for him.
I’ve been wanting to make a film that’s somewhat somber and sci-fi oriented for a while now. Most of my films are based in absurdist humor, which I love and will inevitably return back to, but I feel like it’s a genre that I’ve spent a lot of time in and it’s pretty hard for me to create something that doesn’t reference these sensibilities. When I first started writing the script for “Goodbye”, I was at a point where doing another CG comedy thing would have definitely felt a little stale, and I really wanted to push myself.
With a rather slow start and a long photographic memory transition, we are finally placed in the dubious location where the ‘heavenly’ interview takes place. The completely absurd idea leaves room for much creative temptations that Tyler utilizes plentiful. Creating harsh characters and playing with Godly alter-egos takes guts to begin with, the film is swiftly polished with magnificent CGI to give the environment a life of its own.