A man with cerebral palsy moves into a new apartment with a loud neighbor.


GOOD VIBES is used with permission from Brett Cramer. Learn more at https://brettcramer.com.


Fresh off a bad breakup, Josh has just moved into a new apartment complex with the sleek look of a luxury boutique hotel and amenities to match. But all is not well in this urban domestic utopia. Already dealing with cerebral palsy, he has a neighbor who is disruptive for many hours of the day, and it's driving him crazy, bringing out the anxiety and anger in his already abrasive personality.

He complains to the briskly efficient building manager, Megan, who assures him that the company will deal with the problem. But then he meets Gabriela, the neighbor, who is a single Latina mother with an autistic child and understands the reasons behind the noise. But Josh's complaint has triggered a chain of events that could prove disastrous to Gabriela -- and Josh finds himself helpless and guilty in the face of corporate might.

Directed by Brett Cramer and written by Ryan Sheppard, this astringent, well-crafted comedy-drama seems like a snapshot of a man and his efforts to deal with his annoying neighbor. But as it develops, it reveals layers of both deeper sympathy and sharply observed social critique, as Josh's complaint unleashes unexpected consequences.

Well-written with a sharp eye for the interplay between ordinary human lives and the larger, unseen cultural forces shaping them, the storytelling initially focuses on Josh and his seemingly "normal" problem of a disruptive neighbor. The storytelling sets up Josh as a volatile, frustrated character, writing angry notes to his neighbor about the noise and then complaining to his building manager, played with a clipped, knowing matter-of-factness by actor Meg Cashel. But the clean and gleaming visuals also emphasize Josh's apartment complex, with its generically "luxury" look, a menu of amenities and detailed customer service. This isn't any ordinary apartment building, but something altogether more aspirational.

The film's attention to the apartment complex has a satirical edge, especially with its silly "vibey" name, slick, corporate employees and dewy, optimistic ads promising community, entertainment and a high level of lifestyle to its residents. But the storytelling has more up its sleeve than jokes, especially when Josh gets to know his neighbor Gabriela and her daughter Sarah. He has empathy for Gabriela's struggles as a lower-income mom raising a daughter with autism with little resources. Gabriela's only real stroke of luck is being grandfathered into the apartment complex as a previous neighborhood resident when it was built over her original home. But when Josh lodged his earlier complaint, it inadvertently threatens Gabriela's home at the complex.

Actor Sam Repshas's layered, raw performance plays Josh as a man fundamentally at odds in the world, whether from having cerebral palsy in a world made for the able-bodied or just a forceful, abrasive temperament that might have been the reason for his recent breakup. He softens in his interactions with Gabriela, but Josh fears that, deep down, he is not a good person -- fears reinforced when he realizes what he might have done to Gabriela and her child, his complaint weaponized and caught in the inexorable tides of gentrification. Memorable, complex and compelling, GOOD VIBES ends with a very human crisis of conscience, a man flailing helplessly as the events play out around him -- where one action has too much consequence and everything after is just noise in the wind.