South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival – Surreal comedy short Flex takes four minutes and sends you on a roller coaster from self love to self hate, as a bodybuilder flexes and preens in front of a mirror. Calle Bolund is a real life Swedish bodybuilder and Instagram sensation. In Flex, his internal dialogue is the only narration as he nitpicks, and puffs out his chest, and… well… flexes.

“I may be God enough, but am I good enough?” Calle asks himself as things take a turn for the weird. His intense internal soliloquy is suddenly interrupted by bizarre visuals as Calle sees himself as a feather floating around the room, and as his veins pulse with electricity. His skin becomes a bizarre black hole, and dozens of tiny little Calle’s float around in the air above his head.

A simple and concise concept presented with humor and humility, highlighting the fine line between self loathing and self aggrandizing, Flex is a romp and a rollercoaster. Simply designed – making its best use of a single actor and a single location. Intense, macro close ups of bulging veins and rippling muscles balance nicely with sparse wide shots of the empty room where Calle is having this intense breakthrough moment.

With all the humor of this super bizarre short, there’s an undercurrent of sadness, as we reflect on the dysmorphic tendencies of bodybuilders, and the quest to be better when they can only push their body so hard. As much as this short left me laughing, it also left me pondering the lengths we push ourselves to be the “best”.

Flex reviewed as part of our South by Southwest (SXSW) Film Festival coverage.

6 out of 10