You Tryna Say You Love Me? had its world première at Tribeca, 5 June 2026
The title of writer/director Ty Molbak’s short film You Tryna Say You Love Me? may, not inaccurately, promise love, but it also points to a difficulty in its expression. Late one night at Rick’s diner, Jerrod (Asante Blackk) waits for Chloe (Malia Pyles) to arrive on what both first-year students understand to be a date, even though the parameters are a little vague. Jerrod has been ‘stalking’ Chloe in her Arabic class for some time, but he is also deeply reserved – and while Chloe, who has an interest in language and translation, is far more communicative, she is not yet sure whether this quiet boy is worth the labour.
“Don’t group me in with those legacy kids,” Jerrod insists. Indeed, he is a fish out of water in more ways than one: admitted to the university not for wealth or intellect or family connections, but on an athletics scholarship; and also now prevented by recent surgery even from pursuing his chosen sport of diving. Jerrod is isolated and confused, and struggling with emotional as well as physical trauma. So, instead of simply declaring his love, Jerrod talks more tentatively about talk itself, about the language of love, and about that language’s inadequacies, even as he tries to find a way to articulate feelings for which he has never learnt the vocabulary.
Far from being a meet cute, this is an intense conversation between two people in search of something serious and difficult to express. Chloe has Jerrod down as just a “a momma’s boy” – so he tells her, with an honesty that disarms himself as much as her, of his recently deceased mother, and of the things that went unsaid between them until it was too late. Something in this painful confession bridges the gaping space between these young would-be lovers, and allows them to reach across to each other with a newfound trust, delicate but perhaps durable.
Subtly scripted and superbly acted, Molbak’s two-hander permits its characters to examine and expose their own vulnerabilities, so that their relationship can evolve into something beyond language. It is an earnest, heartfelt portrait, replacing a first date’s usual corny lines with something far more introspective and profound.
strap: Ty Molbak’s short film dives deep into the unexpressed feelings and hidden vulnerabilities of a couple on a first date
© Anton Bitel
