Bob Byington, HARMONY AND ME independent film writer-director: Mr. Media Radio Interview

Bob Byington’s new indie film, Harmony and Me, makes a fool of Mr. Media!

Program staff at the Sundance Institute picked writer–director Bob Byington’s newest feature, Harmony and Me, in February 2008 from among 2,200-plus others during that grant cycle as the sole recipient of its Annenberg Fellowship.

Harmony (Justin Rice) is a young artist who finds it difficult to summon much resolve and motivation in deciding how to overcome his melancholia. Instead, he alternately bores and maddens his family, friends, and co–workers—themselves dealing with illness, death, and bad marriages—by telling and re-telling a tale of woe, rambling on about Jessica (Kristen Tucker) being a bear playing with his heart like a fish in her claws. “She hasn’t finished the job,” he says, somewhat oblivious to the reality of the situation.

The reality of the situation is that Jessica has moved on; it’s Harmony who has work to do. Will he get to it before he’s buried in his own rubble? To see him sit at the piano and conjure the devastating “Finishing Touches” or laugh while he learns “Changing Your Mind” with Bob Schneider’s sleazily endearing wedding singer is to hope he will. That he’ll figure out, like we all do at some point, the secret to getting through things in one piece: Love is all right as far as it goes, but a good soundtrack and a sense of humor go a lot further.

Writer/Director Bob Byington’s next film, RSO [Registered Sex Offender], premiered at SXSW in 2008, and his next project is called Seven Chinese Brothers.