Directed by Yorgos Lanthimos (Poor Things; The Favourite; The Killing of a Sacred Deeer) — Story / Screenplay by David Kolbusz (based on an idea by), Yorgos Lanthimos, and Ethymis Filippou.
Recently, I rewatched Yorgos Lanthimos’ short film Nimic starring Matt Dillon, in which we follow as his character leaves his family to go to work, but then, on his way back, a strange woman stalks him and mimics his every move in an attempt to prove that she is actually his wife’s husband and the father of his children. What follows below are my two first reactions to the film, which were originally posted via my Letterboxd profile.
Following my first viewing, I didn’t think too much of it, though I had some theories as to what it could mean. I stated that there wasn’t much to it, but that I genuinely liked it. The short film feels like a very simple but supremely strange premise that Lanthimos gets about as much out of as he can in twelve minutes time. It is the kind of short film that would certainly get people talking and sharing interpretations. It revolves around the concepts of being replaceable, adaptable, or perhaps the scary thought that we are but a meaningless copy of something anyone can aspire to be. Perhaps we are nothing more than the product of societal trends. Other people’s yawning means we should yawn, etc. There’s something to be said about that interpretation or reading of the short film, but it may also simply be about why we keep to ourselves on our daily commute.
On this most recent second viewing of the short film, I thought more about the relationships and the structures that our world is built around. Can anyone fulfill your role in society? Your role in relationships? If you grow tired of the mundanity and repetitiveness of daily life, if you take the love of your family for granted, then anyone can swoop in and take your place and perform your role adequately thus leaving you on a train to nowhere hoping to cling onto anything meaningful to get you through the day. I think this reading, which I only came to a couple of days ago, feels more right to me. In any case, I will say that the short film has massively grown on me, and I highly recommend it.
– Review / Article Written by Jeffrey Rex Bertelsen.
I'm Jeffrey Rex 
One of the most interesting things about this short film is the sequence where the Nimic performs in the main character’s place in the orchestra. We are intentionally shown that this replacement does not play properly, even though it seems genuine in its attempts to make the same movements and display the same concentration. Even so, no one, not even the rest of the orchestra, appears to notice or care.
To me, this horror means not just that we are replaceable by some supernatural force or tricky doppleganger, but that our place in the world already had nearly 0 meaning. It’s not only that some other creature or person can imitate us, but they can do it poorly, objectively wrong, and nothing is disrupted because we were already utterly unimportant, even to ourselves.
That’s a strong and compelling interpretation. Thanks for the nice comment.