2024 Victoria Film Festival – Jess Plus None

Pulse
Engaging + Witty + Insightful
Mandy Fabian
USA | 2023 | 101 min

Queer quirky Jess (Abby Miller, The Sinner, Justified) is dreading her best friend Melanie’s wedding happening off the grid, in the middle of the woods with no cell phone service! Jess has been given the high-pressure job of maid of honour which she has reluctantly agreed to but to make matters worse her ex-girlfriend (Scout Durwood, Youtopia) will be attending, and all her seemingly perfect coupled friends from college including her gay friend and his new partner. She’s horny and lonely and trying to figure out where she fits in, making a mess of everything along the way, alienating the group and putting her foot in her mouth constantly. But Jess is also a loveable misfit trying to figure out life and love and be a good friend despite her reservations about Melanie’s beau. A chance meeting with a ranger in the woods challenges Jess to think about the road forward and how to get there, all the while making a royal mess! With a stellar ensemble cast, everyone in Jess Plus None is having their own epiphanies and are such perfectly flawed and totally relatable characters just trying to live their lives.

Jess Plus None is a delightful comedy that employs the formula of the bygone screwball genre so well with its witty dialogue, sarcasm, slapstick movement, and fantastically hilarious Jess at its centre. – KM