What Happened Was (1994)

In Tom Noonan's riveting drama about a first date, Jackie (Karen Sillas), an executive assistant, cooks dinner for Michael (Noonan), a paralegal who works at the same law firm. As the wine flows and the two struggle to make small talk, the whole atmosphere of stammering anxiety seems quaint, almost dated, in its comic familiarity. But then the film begins to involve us in unfamiliar ways. Noonan's presence grows freakishly compelling, and Sillas emerges as a major performer, her sad, sultry intensity transforming the film into a slow-burn neurotic rhapsody.