Jason Sondhi
A fascinating film from writer/director Nick Harwood that plays in a space between satire and earnest sincerity, The Big Draw is a contemporary portrait of a familiar literary character—the disaffected young man seeking meaning—updated for the modern age of the internet, climate anxiety, and Porn Hub.
Jonah is our main character and he is young, Caucasian, aimless, and I suspect, secretly angry. Mostly though he is a bit depressed as he experiences writer’s block towards an essay for his college English class. Against the rainy, gray backdrop of Vancouver, he masturbates and feels shame, nurses a secret crush on the coffee shop barista, and meekly allows a climate activist to petition him on the street despite having no interest in the subject. All this changes when a YouTube advert auto-plays on his computer and promises secret knowledge that will cure the malaise of the modern man…
To avoid spoiling, I will not reveal the nature of the “big draw” of the film’s title, but it is, at first blush, quite ridiculous. Despite sounding like a joke, the film plays it earnestly, and to my surprise, Google reveals that the technique is quite real. Silly as it may seem, Jonah is in a vulnerable state, crying out for a defining philosophy. He is the target audience that has given rise to a new era of lifestyle gurus who point the way toward a new definition of masculinity—Jordan Peterson, Andrew Tate, and other controversial figures of the derided “manosphere“, and despite no reference to these movements I suspect that Harwood expects the association to arrive to audiences spontaneously.
Vuk Prodanovic as Jonah, The Big Draw’s layered protagonist.
Jonah’s adherence to the “big draw” gives him confidence, and anyone who examines these communities, which include pick-up artists, men’s rights activists, incels, and more, is at once struck by the often warm and constructive advice offered to young men encouraging them towards psychological and physical self-help and improvement. The issue is the ideology and ends to which these positive developments are applied, which invariably are regressive and misogynistic.
Jonah, bolstered by his new philosophy, exhibits some of this duality—he is able to finish his essay and ask out the barista. But his aggression is also empowered, as he confronts the activist that had previously solicited him on the street and invites violent conflict (not coincidentally, the cause was concerning carbon emissions). Despite the effects of his lifestyle change, shortly thereafter Jonah is presented with the choice of whether to adhere to his newfound philosophy or, on the first chance given, to break with it. Ultimately, the ability of any lifestyle movement to change your life is only as effective as the will to follow through with it, and, in the strange and seemingly random coda of the film, Jonah is shown to still be shopping for “ancient wisdom” to order his life by. Only this time he seeks inspiration via the book he was forced to read for class.
The Big Draw is the narrative debut of Nick Harwood who, under the moniker of “Industry Plant“, has developed a reputation in the music video and commercial directing worlds—first drawing acclaim for his videos for artists like SOPHIE and Blood Orange, and then moving in to fashion work for brands like Kenzo and Louis Vuitton. We’re happy to present it’s online premiere today on Short of the Week.