COVID was such a tough time for all of us, and filmmaker Paul Santoli’s timing is perfect in We Want the Virus. What I mean is, we can finally laugh about that frakin’ awful time.
Adam (Paul Santoli) and Greg (Cody Schultz) are lifelong best friends and dead-broke actors living in Los Angeles…who isn’t? To make matters worse, Adam’s screw-up cost him his day job, so Greg can no longer afford the cruise he and his girlfriend planned. So what do they do to fix it? They set up a GoFund Yasself page online claiming Adam is fighting a severe case of COVID-19.
After a drunken bender, the duo finds they raised over $22,000. The problem is that when Greg tries to collect from the site, the owner, Tina (Amy Lyndon), says she needs proof that Adam has COVID within 48 hours, or she’ll press criminal fraud charges. So, Adam and Greg scheme their way across Los Angeles, hoping to find someone with COVID and get infected.
Adam (Paul Santoli) and Melanie (Elisabeth Montanaro) share a moment at the bar in We Want the Virus.
“They set up a GoFund Yasself page online claiming Adam is fighting a severe case of COVID-19.”
Meanwhile, this isn’t Tina’s first rodeo, as many others have tried the same scheme. So she sends her assistant, Melanie (Elisabeth Montanaro), as a private investigator to see whether Adam really has COVID or whether they’re going to spend the next 48 hours trying to get sick.
If you think We Want the Virus is a screwball buddy comedy, then you’re right. It’s got the look and feel of the old indie screwball comedies of the ’80s and ’90s. We start with the silly premise of two dudes desperate to raise money overnight, and we modernize it with a COVID and crowdfunding twist. But the rest of the formula stays the same. Two hapless broke actors looking for cash while facing jail in a mob-like extortion scheme and the complication of the beautiful Melanie, who may or may not have feelings for Adam…because Adam sure does have feelings for her.
Now, success comes down to execution, and writer/director/star Paul Santoli takes the film’s limited budget and ultimately produces a sweet, silly, comedic tale. It hits all the right metrics, with 75% of the jokes landing. The plot is outlandish, with only two major plot holes, like the fact that it takes more than two days for a COVID test to detect the virus after you’ve been exposed. Lastly, there’s the sweet will-they-won’t-they love story between Adam and Melanie.
In the end, We Want the Virus works because it’s a strong setup that is executed well, and the craziness makes the film a fun watch for any get-together where you just want to chill and hang.
We Want the Virus can be streamed on YouTube.
