“Another Day in America” (2024) is set at Haskin Rogers, a post-pandemic, fictional business that resides in a Massachusetts Cummings Properties’ office park. Director and writer Emilio Mauro depicts the people who work there and follows their storylines. Interpersonal dynamics run the gamut of reckless one-night stands to office politics. Warring executives, gender wars, racial politics, generational divides, mental breaks, ableism, battle of the sexes, political correctness, work-life balance, and social media optics are some of the many issues that the characters tackle in one workday, but is anyone or anything working?
The ensemble cast of characters starts with Tracy Anderson (Alexis Knapp), the no-nonsense HR head who doesn’t take crap from anyone, including her bosses, nepotism beneficiary and golf lover Carl Haskins (Steve Memmolo) and his dad, the former CEO, Douglas Haskins (Brian Goodman). She has a powerful, mysterious offsite patron, Victoria Rogers (Natasha Henstridge), who has something over on the Haskins family, but that thread never gets revealed. The eternally miserable and allegedly high achiever Greg Strout (Ritchie Coster) shares a table with multiple colleagues, including agreeable Mary O’Connor (Melissa McMeekin, who played the hooker in “The Holdovers”). Greg adopts an ax-to-grind from office dweller, ex from hell Scott Miller (Oliver Trevena), which sets him on a collision course with Tracy.
Scott cannot move on after coworker and former girlfriend Erin Gleason (Daphne Blunt), an aspiring influencer, broke up with him and is dating more eligible bachelors, which includes their biggest client, Chris Ferris (Fred Bertino). Meanwhile Sam Ackerman (Paul Ben-Victor) tries to act like everything is normal and hires a more financially successful intern, Timmy (Emmett Parker). Joe Carlton (Joey Oglesby) is discombobulated from a boozy, one-night stand with Shirley Sherman (Kayla Harrity) and confides in his dick pic friend and colleague David ‘Duceman” Doucette (Preston Flagg), who has a narrow office. Sicilian team player Anthony “Tony” Carlo (Damien Di Paola) tries to get the office to rally and redistribute work after Tracy fires Manny Mantos (Christian Trotta) but gets increasingly agitated when he cannot find his best worker, Justin Wall (Gary M. Bloom). Larry Sims (Jon Saphire) fails to take Tony seriously. Tony is the wisest person in the office but is far from perfect when he cannot empathize with Nadia Carter (Raquel Castro), who disrupts his meeting with an exclamation that felt like a cut scene from “Rent.” Meanwhile all the women get along despite Kat Garcia (Marino Varano) needling Erin for her dating choices and invasively questioning Starling “Star” Smith (Domaine Javier).
With a run time of one hour fifty-three minutes, “Another Day in America” starts to pick up steam after forty-five minutes of watching people go through their mini melodramas. That stretch feels like one of those raunchy comedies that leans heavily on scatological humor. Mauro places the camera at the feet of various men at their least flattering moment, which adds a touch of raw realism and signals the friendship between Duceman and Joe before they meet up. Otherwise, the beginning feels like well-trod ground that Judd Apatow and “The Hangover” franchise covered. Harrity rights the ship by grabbing the comedy crown and playing a bit so straight that it becomes hilarious because she is oblivious to Joe’s furtive agenda and growing horror over his discoveries after initial relief that she is not a fan of Presidon’t. Their story becomes a cute, absurd unpredictable relationship that becomes easy to get invested in, especially as Mauro gives the audience glimpses of what Joe is sincerely Googling to step up and become a better person after spiraling over the details of their tryst.
If “Another Day in America” loses people before it picks up steam, it is because there is more telling than showing, and the telling feels more like social media screeds than actual dialogue, which is Mauro’s point, but intellectual points won’t keep butts in seats or people from pausing and moving on to another activity. When Mauro has a character break the fourth wall, the scene hued too close to the rant in “25th Hour” (2002). One perfect, resonating image links depression with a black screen serving as a mirror instead of a door into community. Mauro is trying to encourage people to connect despite being assigned online roles of various grievances because the real enemy does not wound with words.
To do so effectively, cutting the movie’s length would have helped, starting with some repetitive scenes such as the final confrontation between Tracy and Greg. Details were needed: what kind of work does Haskins Rogers do, what happened between Victoria, Tracy and Douglas, what are the space rules versus the hierarchy? How is Scott one of Greg’s analysts, but Greg does not have a private office? Also if HR has so much power, and Chris is a big client, would not there be backlash for calling Erin so many sex shaming names and fear of angering Chris if she got in trouble for dating him? It felt as if Mauro has not spent enough time in an office to spin a sardonic take. It would have also helped if he had consulted with a woman writer because TikTok is also covering the loneliness epidemic affecting men. Women are divesting themselves from trying to solve this problem at the expense of their well-being. This script’s foundation is about being chronically online so missing this development, which is crucial in a few storylines, seems like a big omission. That contribution may have added texture to Erin’s interactions with Scott, especially considering her ambitions and reasons for dumping Scott.
While “Another Day in America” cannot compete with Alex Garland’s “Civil War” (2024), it does beat the blockbuster in terms of ambition in examining contemporary hot button topics and feeling grounded in authentic conflict. Especially because of the dialogue style, it feels more like a play. An added factor is the fact that the scenes rarely move to other locations. When locations shift, the movie is recognizably shot in Boston’s South Street Diner or a suburban office park, enclosed waterfront/bench area. You may never be so happy to see someone’s apartment after being confined in the sterile, characterless office space.
There is a reward for sticking around. “Another Day in America” deserves credit for delivering an unpredictable (or I’m getting slow and did not pick up the clues) denouement and having a sense of humor, which includes an allusion to “The Sixth Sense” (1999). There are various plot twists, satisfying resolutions and character revelations, but by the end, some viewers may find the denouement too preachy as if it was an adult “Afterschool Special.” Others may be triggered since the filmmaker is from Massachusetts, and some locals may believe that the true event which Mauro is referencing is [see the Spoilers below]. In his defense, it is fair game since there is no end in sight, but a demerit goes to extending his sympathy to bad faith actors while also simultaneously validating earlier statements of ridicule. The ambiguity in the final act felt like a disservice to the characters that he created and devoted so much time to. The final minutes felt like a regressive reversion to the default of news broadcasts that privilege the sensational over the ordinary. It also felt reminiscent to the hug in “Traffic” (2000).
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the Edgewater Technology Shooting.
