I Could Dom: Rom-Com That Goes Hard on the Comedy

Madison Hatfield’s I Could Dom is a film this writer would watch again and again and twice on Christmas. A gift of comedy and heartfelt sincerity to viewers, the 15-minute film features the best of contemporary comedy and romance—think fourth wall breaks, sexual adventures, existential angst—and adapts it into an entertainer whose only real flaw is that it ends so soon.  

Hatfield plays the insecure and sexually uninformed June with endearing pep, but her direction has the stamp of confidence. June is a people pleaser, with friends (Hannah Alline, Adetinpo Thomas) who encourage her to be otherwise, but as with people who are yet to find their footing as a full-fledged person, June takes the wrong lesson from it and commits her soul to it. She decides to play dom. At least for a night. So enters Jeff (Derek Evans) as an innocuous, unthreatening pop-up on our screen, a soothing contrast to every other ironically pushy sub on June’s dating app. The subsequent date forms the film’s main attraction of the film as the power of a google search education is put to the test while June struggles to balance an all latex outfit with the usage of all the very novel words she has learned. 

A beautiful and very out of place ornate golden soap dish becomes an analogy for all of June’s troubles with herself, only to lead Jeff to posit one of the most reassuring thesis statements in recent popular cinema: maybe what we need for ourselves is what we offer others. 

The scene is an excellent blend of comedy and sincerity. Evans emotes with nuance. It is easy to like the character almost immediately, and then it gets better. The epilogue ends the film on a laugh. June has come a long way; Jeff remains his charming self. 

There is much to love about I Could Dom. The overall look and feel is a blend of Fleabag and Autumn de Wilde’s Emma, with a bit of 2010s sex comedies sprinkled in. The combination of bookending art inserts and music are an instant favourite, as are some of the cuts (like when every eye snaps to June in a cafe). The list goes on, but the bottomline goes like this: A must watch.