5683

The Fixate & Binge Podcast, w/ Joe Curdy

7/29/2026

If romantic comedies once sold audiences on the fantasy that somewhere out there exists a perfect person waiting to complete us, **5683** arrives with a more contemporary question: what if finding that person first requires surviving an endless procession of terrible dates, awkward encounters, and men who share suspiciously similar names? It's a premise that sounds like the setup to an elaborate practical joke. Lovelorn advertising executive Vanessa texts a billboard advertisement promising to reveal the name of her soulmate, only to receive the answer "Rusty Anderson."  Convinced that fate has spoken — or at least curious enough to investigate — Vanessa and her fiercely loyal circle of friends set out to locate every conceivable variation of the name lurking within the city limits. Russ Anderson. R.J. Anderson. Russell Anderson. Rusty Anderson. What follows is less a search for true love than an archaeological dig through the ruins of modern dating. The film's comedic sensibilities land somewhere in the neighborhood of **THE 40-YEAR-OLD VIRGIN** and **BRIDESMAIDS**, mining humor not from grand romantic gestures but from social discomfort, misplaced confidence, and the peculiar performance that dating itself has become in the age of algorithms and carefully curated identities. There is considerably more "com" than "rom" here, and the film is all the smarter for recognizing where its strengths lie. Its greatest asset is the chemistry among its ensemble. Vanessa's friendships feel lived-in and authentic — the kind forged through shared embarrassments, bad decisions, and years of accumulated history rather than screenplay convenience. The banter crackles because it feels less written than overheard. Among the cast, Caitlin Allen emerges as the film's emotional center, giving Vanessa a warmth and vulnerability that keeps the audience invested even as the increasingly absurd parade of Andersons threatens to derail her optimism entirely. Rachel Williamson proves an undeniable standout as Layla, delivering some of the film's sharpest laughs with impeccable timing and a performance that understands comedy often lives in reaction as much as delivery.  Meanwhile, Landon Sheetz brings an effortless charm to Adrian — Vanessa's bartender neighbor and aspiring comedian — finding a surprisingly sweet emotional register beneath the character's easygoing humor. Not every joke lands. Not every subplot earns equal attention. But independent filmmaking has always been less about perfection than personality, and **5683** possesses that quality in abundance. The hilariously juvenile tea-bagging advertisement was funny enough to warrant an immediate rewind, while the snippets of the gloriously overcooked soap opera ***Deep in Carrsville*** serve as reminders that the film is fully aware of its own absurdity and would much rather audiences laugh with it than analyze it to death. What ultimately stayed with me wasn't the central mystery of whether Vanessa would find her Rusty Anderson, but the film's understanding that our friends often know us better than we know ourselves. Romantic comedies traditionally concern themselves with finding "the one," but **5683** quietly argues that the people who volunteer to accompany us through disappointment after disappointment may be just as important. Lest we forget, true love is a journey, not a destination -- and as Shakespeare once reminded us, "*The course of true love never did run smooth*." Under Brittany Bemedict's committed direction and Kevin Shepherd's screenplay, the film never quite escapes the gravitational pull of its budgetary limitations, but neither does it surrender to them. There is too much enthusiasm here, too much affection for the characters, and too much belief in the material for that. By the time the film arrives at its closing dedication — a genuinely moving reminder of why stories get told in the first place — it becomes difficult not to admire what the filmmakers have accomplished. Because independent cinema has never been about resources. It's about conviction. And **5683** has enough of that to spare.