So goes the first lines in Yorgos Lanthimos' odd little 2019 short: "Excuse me. Do you have the time?" The answer, at a runtime of 12 minutes is.... maybe? For fans of Lanthimos... Yes?
Nimic, like the title suggests, is slightly off, not quite right, not quite 'mimic,' and nothing here is quite resolved. Apart from, that is, a mood, a surreal little ride, a feeling of unease.
Father, the film's blank protagonist (tricky ground here), meets a woman on a subway, only to find himself followed, 'Mimicked,' and the absurdity of this, like in many of Lanthimos' films, is accepted by his family.
So perhaps too should the viewer when watching Nimic.
"Nimic," Romanian for "Nothing" - is a word also present in the film: from the way its characters fill voids, wear dull expressions; the film's narrative itself with no concrete answer. What should be expected here is the fun of the experimentation, the cinematography (a great camera whip), the soundtrack, and simply that.
