Phoebe (Rifftrax Shorts)

Rifftrax Year:  2016
Riffers:  Bridget Nelson, Mary Jo Pehl

At long last, the character spin-off Friends fans have always wanted!  None of this Joey crap!

Oh wait, it turns out Phoebe is really a short film about a teenage girl who finds out she's pregnant.  She spends an entire day mentally torturing herself about different scenarios of the reactions she'll get when she tells her parents and her boyfriend, as well as what might lie in her future.  Meanwhile as she mentally alienates herself those around her find themselves distanced and slighted by her.

I don't really consider myself a good enough critic to judge films on artistic merit.  I enjoy watching artistic films, but I rarely give a shit about coming up with an analysis of them.  I more or less find myself enjoying them because I analyze them in the moment and maybe I'll grow an emotional attachment to them.

As such I'm not really certain what to say about Phoebe, which is a heavily dramatic short film about a girl's emotions and uncertainty.  I mean, I understand it and I thought it was an interesting story, but it feels like this should be in someone else's wheelhouse because it's a bit outside of my own history of giving opinions on low budget monster movies.  If I were to give any sort of criticism I'd say I thought the acting was uneven, the boyfriend was annoying, and the transitions into Phoebe's imagination were at times very jarring and confusing.  That said I don't really have much against this short.  It's kind of like a more dramatic Juno, except unlike Juno it's forgotten in five seconds as opposed to five years.

Bridget and Mary Jo take the film under their wing and act like something of a conscience to Phoebe herself.  They note about halfway through that she seems easily agreeable to a lot of things and point out "It's okay to say 'no' sometimes."  They find her boyfriend obnoxious and horrifying, and seem to ponder whether him rejecting the baby might be for the best.

Mary Jo in particular seems a bit taken aback by the short's presentation, often finding it confusing and gets easily lost, pointing out that she can get easily confused by an episode of Murder She Wrote.  She also thanks Bridget for guiding her through the out of control mind of Phoebe, and lures her back so they can point out the weirdness of the short, such as the strange dancers at the beach, the creepy sex mansion, and the wacky music.

Phoebe is a different kind of short that may take some viewers aback but the riffing is oh so funny.  Mark this one up as another winner for Bridget and Mary Jo.

Thumbs Up

👍