Project Detail

How to Be

Synopsis

A wry coming-of-age comedy about 20-something Arthur who gets dumped by his girlfriend, moves back in with his parents and hits a quarter-life crisis. Arthur uses inheritance money to indulge in retail and new age therapies only to end up enlisting the help of an eccentric self-help guru, Dr. Ellington. Arthur’s painfully funny journey to define his existence brings to the fore the dysfunctional relationship he has with his parents and the importance in his life of his odd-ball friends. How To Be is a timely look at increasingly common phenomena: grown-up children living at home, frustrated creativity and self-help.

Details

Year
2008
Type of project
Features
Running time
83 mins
Format
S16mm
Director
Oliver Irving
Producer
Justin Kelly
Editor
Reuben Irving, Peter Davies
Screenwriter
Oliver Irving
Director of Photography
Paul Swann
Production Designer
Nic Tuft
Sound
Tim Barker
Composer
Joe Hastings
Principal cast
Robert Pattinson, Rebecca Pidgeon, Jeremy Harding, Michael Irving, Powell Jones, Michael Pearce, Johny white, Alisa Arnah

Categories

Production Status

Production Company

Page updates

This page was last updated on 12th May 2025. Please let us know if we need to make any amendments or request edit access by clicking below.

See also

You may also be interested in other relevant projects in the database.

 About an Intimate Matter About an Intimate Matter

Director: Sandeep Kumar Paul

Year: 2026

Science teacher Swarna and her partner Driti move to a suburban town for a fresh start. When a student leaks intimate photos of Swarna online, school authorities turn her private life into a disciplinary issue. Official Selection Busan International Film Festival 2026 - World premiere

Denzel Baidoo as Marcus, forlorn at the dinner table. Clocks

Director: Yv Shells

Year: 2026

When Arlo arrives to find Marcus has cooked someone else’s favourite meal, a single question begins to unravel an evening that refuses to stay in the present. Through a fractured timeline set entirely within one dining room, we move between Marcus and Arlo and the relationship that came before, with Una, the woman he met at a late-night bus stop and once talked about marrying. The same table, the same chairs, the same arguments about trust, honesty and what it means to truly see someone. As the timelines bleed together, it becomes clear that Marcus has never fully left the past, and that Una’s ghost sits at every table he sets. When Arlo asks what her own favourite meal is and he cannot answer, the film’s quiet devastation lands completely. CLOCKS is a portrait of a man who loves generously but sees poorly, and the women who carry the cost. It asks what we owe the person in front of us while we are still in love with someone we lost, and whether a feeling ever truly ends.

Skintown Skintown

Director: Kieron J. Walsh

Year: 2026

1994. As Northern Ireland takes its first steps towards peace, best friends Vinny and Jonty are about to jump start their futures with the most reckless trip of their lives. Official Selection Busan International Film Festival 2026