What does it mean to capture the moment you begin to lose someone — even as you're falling for them? In Tell Me Something, filmmaker and creative multi-hyphenate Jessie Andrews rewinds time and feeling in her directorial debut, turning a first date into both memory and mirror.
Lensed with striking intimacy, the film invites us into a night of conversation. “There’s something addictive about discovering someone new,” writes Sophie Wang, in her official film synopsis. “Every shared thought feels sacred.” But what happens when the sacred turns sour?
Andrews unpacks this emotional shift not only through her on-screen performance, but in the way she frames time itself — tender, collapsing, inescapably human. “We tend to ruin the present with the idea of the future,” Andrews reflects. “It’s an exploration of chemistry, foreshadowing the inevitability of disconnect.” On set and on screen, Tell Me Something reminds us that the most magnetic moments are often the ones that slip away the fastest.
Below, through a collage of behind-the-scenes imagery from photographer James Bee and commentary direct from the lips of Andrews, we glimpse the alchemy of storytelling in motion — the barely-there smiles, the cigarette breaks between takes, the fragile reality of two people suspended in the fantasy of connection.
“ Anyone can relate to the idea of anything."
An exploration of chemistry foreshadowing the inevitability of disconnect. That’s how I’d explain this story. We can all relate to that, right?
I’m in love with role play.
I fall in love with the characters I’m creating.
I dream about their stories at night. Over analysing every aspect I can think of and use parts of myself to build them so I feel so intertwined with them.
My life seems like a movie now, doing things for the plot and sacrificing myself for my own art.
The female gaze is completely lost in the “idea”, trying to hold it together, when in reality she is holding all the cards. Anticipating the future, not being in the moment causes the context of “tell me something” to change with time from curiosity to boredom. The push and pull is torture, we’ve all been there, and we know how it ends.
Were we the right people, wrong time? Or is that just what people say to make reality bearable.
Watch the full film
You can watch the full film below, or on NOWNESS.
