Omeleto - Sydney is out with her friend Madi, both of them enjoying an afternoon of shopping. But then they wander into a hip, high-end boutique, presided over by a sales associate named Alex. The two friends chatter, and the sales associate, Alex, is seemingly friendly, welcoming and solicitous of both women, even telling Madi about a job at the store and starting dressing rooms for both. But Sydney feels uneasy, not finding the merchandise to be inclusive of her Black skin tone and the prices to be high. She gives up on shopping and waits for Madi outside the dressing room. But when Alex doesn't find one of the items left behind in the dressing room, she accuses Sydney of shoplifting, leading to a nerve-racking, explosive chain of events. Directed and written by Aisha Evelyna, who also plays the role of Sydney, this thought-provoking short drama begins like a contemporary tale of two friends, enjoying a day of shopping and catching up with one another. Shot with a bright, clean airiness in its lighting and colors, the film carefully situates the two women in a gently upscale, Instagram-friendly retail environment that swathes its inhabitants in an elevated atmosphere where nothing bad could happen. But with its attentive close-ups and handheld camerawork, the storytelling focuses on Sydney, and how as a Black woman, she does not quite fit in despite the sales associate's attempts to tout their inclusivity.
Whether it's in the limited palette of nude tones or the exorbitant prices of the merchandise, Sydney realizes this is not the store for her. But while she waits for Madi to finish up, she is accused of shoplifting, and the emotional tempo and tone of the film shifts from a quietly intimate snapshot of Sydney's subjective experience to a tense, nail-biting confrontation that turns ugly, especially as Alex presses on with her accusations, even after Sydney acquiesces to having her bag searched. While the film isn't unsympathetic to Alex's ratcheting anxiety in the exchange, it underscores how her actions make Sydney feel like a caged animal, cornering her to the point of panic. As Sydney and the film's emotional center, Evelyna holds the screen with a beautifully precise and understated performance. She doesn't have much dialogue, but her reactions and observations give shape to the experience of being an outsider.
And when things get even uglier, her panic and shock are understandable. Skillfully crafted and powerfully compelling, "Alex" is empathetic and attentive to Sydney's experience. But in naming its title after the shop associate, the film asks viewers to consider the role of the sales associate in the situation -- a woman who purports to be progressive and touts her inclusivity but defaults to an ugly stereotype about shoplifting when challenged by reality, with all its volatility and messiness. Even in a serene and prosperous milieu, the ugly specters of bigotry and stereotypes still thrum underneath the tidy, curated surfaces. They seem to resonate even uglier, coming as they do from someone who likely would never think of themselves as racist -- and force us to confront the gap between who we would like to be and how much we still have to unlearn.
