The workplace is a lovely place to set a story. It is a place with multiple people, with various characters and, depending on the job, there are plenty of things to do or ignore. All Sorts, a quirky new romantic comedy set in a data management company, falls into the latter category.

The film follows Diego (Eli Vargas) as he embarks on a career with a data management firm. Assigned a cubicle without a computer at first, he gets to know the rest of his coworkers, a cast of wacky characters. There’s the guy who hasn’t been seen in years, the woman who is extraordinarily good at filing, and the idiot boss who is impressed by a 55 word-per-minute typing speed and at one point fires himself.

One day while staying late, Diego notices a queue of people at the snack machines, but they’re not there for the snacks. Instead, behind the machines he discovers an underground, fight-club style filing competition. Yes, a competition where entrants have a stack of folders they have to put into a filing cabinet with the greatest speed and accuracy. So naturally, he recruits his coworker June –not only the one who is good at filing but also that he has a crush on– to the competition.

If this sounds a little nuts, well, it is. The competition is lit and shot like an underground boxing match. There’s much discussion of strategy and sorting algorithms, and the big final tournament includes some actual gymnastic talent.

This sense of whimsey among the mundane also permeates the rest of the film, from the office currency being Payday candy bars to the occasional paper clip attempting to slink away like a caterpillar. Sure, it’s absurd, but it’s also delightful.

There’s a real scrappiness to the film as well. The kind of feeling you only get from a low budget indie comedy like this, where everyone is committed to the bit, and the film has an authentic voice that shines through the budgetary and filmmaking constraints. The kind of feeling that makes you want to root not just for the characters but for the film itself. It’s not the kind of thing that will work for everyone, but All Sorts is precisely the kind of movie that I love discovering at film festivals.

All Sorts is playing at Raindance Film Festival tonight in-person at the Curzon Hoxton Cinema and online in the UK from November 7th to 9th.

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