Another Day in America

Writer-director Emilio Mauro’s Another Day in America is a bitingly dark office comedy set in a post-pandemic world. Warning: the commentary will feel very familiar. Our story takes place on a not-so-typical workday at a typical office park in Massachusetts. We open with HR chief Tracy (Alexis Knapp) firing Manny (Christian Trotta) for old high school social media posts. Meanwhile, manager Tony (Damien Di Paola) is trying to keep the office running because a major presentation is due. With Manny gone, they’re shorthanded; it doesn’t help that Joe (Joey Oglesby) and Larry (Jon Saphire) are missing in action.

To make matters worse, everyone went drinking the night before, and half the staff is either hungover or recovering from some spicy sexual encounter. For the rest of the day, sexual politics and office politics are in play. Here’s the deal: manager Carl (Steve Memmolo) struggles to fill his father’s shoes, former CEO Douglas (Brian Goodman), who was forced out by his ex-wife, Victoria (Natasha Henstridge).Down in the trenches, Scott (Oliver Trevena) is obsessed with his ex Erin (Daphne Blunt), who dumped him and is now dating the company’s biggest client. Supervisor Greg (Ritchie Coster) is outraged that Erin is dating their client. He wants her fired and starts digging through her social media for leverage.

Meanwhile, missing Joe (Joey Oglesby) has been in the bathroom all this time, spiraling about his sexual encounter with Shirley (Kayla Harrity). It was great, but he’s convinced he forgot to pull out. He unloads all of this on the Duceman (Preston Flagg), who passes it along to the new hire, Star (Domaine Javier), and Mary (Melissa McMeekin) through the office rumor mill. As deadlines approach, grievances begin to mount. Tracy refuses to help Scott because there are no rules against Erin dating clients. Carl isn’t living up to his father’s expectations as sales begin to plummet. Scott stops taking care of himself after Erin, and the spark that lights the fuse is his use of gendered language—asking the men to open a stuck window and put their “manly muscles” into it.

Natasha Henstridge in a key conversation scene from Another Day in America.

“We open with HR chief Tracy firing Manny for old high school social media posts.”

Another Day in America asks a simple question: how far have we come as a society since the pandemic? We used to love each other. We used to take pride in our work. Now it appears we’ve all turned inward, caring only for ourselves and our immediate needs. A company’s success takes a back seat to agendas—political ones about the office environment, and personal ones tied to ambition and pleasure. Even when it looks like we care about others, virtue signaling can be less about the “victims” and more about gaining power over the people around us.

Mauro spotlights the hot-button social issues that emerged from the pandemic and lockdown, and he really doesn’t take a side… except for one (more on this later). He lets both sides play out narratively. Both sides build walls instead of empathy, which, ironically, is demanded but rarely practiced. Soon, all that unresolved tension piles up, steering us toward the side Mauro takes—and you can clearly see how the events build to that moment.

I give a lot of credit to Mauro and his storytelling ability. It’s not easy to pull off satire instead of straight comedy. There are a few ha-ha laughs, but there is a great deal of satirical commentary on our time. The commentary serves as a warning for all of us to do better. The filmmaker has also assembled a great cast. Every actor knows and understands their character and their needs and wants. When they butt up against one another, you can’t help but scream, “Listen to one another.” Mauro manages this cast perfectly.

Look, I’m a fan of laugh-out-loud comedies, but I’m an even bigger fan of movies that make you think and leave a long-lasting impression at the same time. Another Day in America does exactly that. Now ask yourself… how did we get here?