Woman Taking Part In The 'Wes Anderson' TikTok Trend Accidentally Films Herself Getting Laid Off But Makes Art Out Of It Anyway
She ended up capturing one of the worst days you can have — and then turned it into something beautiful.
TikTok Life is nothing if not full of surprises, and in our social media era every now and then we inadvertently capture one of them as they happen. That happened to a woman on TikTok recently, and it yielded some surprising results that people are finding deeply relatable.
A woman accidentally filmed herself getting laid off while shooting a Wes Anderson-inspired TikTok video.
Though layoffs can sometimes be predicted, getting laid off is almost always a surprise. But rarely do we get thrown for a loop quite like TikToker @sohltrain did when she recently got let go from her job at Amazon.
The video was part of a Wes Anderson TikTok trend in which people film a day in their life in the style of the filmmaker.
Wes Anderson, the Oscar-nominated writer and director behind iconic films like "The Royal Tenenbaums," "The Darjeeling Limited" and "Moonrise Kingdom," is known for his distinctive visual style of clean lines, symmetry, and whimsical use of color. Like many auteurs, he nearly always works with the same composer, Alexandre Desplat, who won an Oscar for his "Grand Budapest Hotel" score in 2015.
The Wes Anderson TikTok trend takes the long-running "day-in-the-life" trend on the app, in which people film snippets of their usual day to reveal a bit more about their lives, and crosses it with Anderson's and Desplat's unique styles.
The trend began when British TikToker @hollyhunter101 filmed a day in her life in Southend-On-Sea, UK, in Wes Anderson's style and scored to "Obituary" from Desplat's soundtrack to Anderson's "The French Dispatch."
The trend has since sparked gazillions of viral copycats as people follow the often hilarious and moving results of TikTokers replicating Anderson's blend of humor and melancholy in their own lives. And many feel @sohltrain's video nails the trend like no other.
While she was filming herself checking her email for her Wes Anderson TikTok trend video, she got a notice that she was being laid off.
Jen, @sohltrain's real name, began her video like so many others of the Wes Anderson TikTok trend. Clean, symmetrical shots of Jen waking up in bed, making her morning coffee, brushing her teeth and sitting down to work all time perfectly with Desplat's "Obituary" score.
But it's when she opens her email that her video takes a hard turn. As she indicates in onscreen text, she caught herself "real-time opening the email"—unexpectedly, her hand goes to her mouth in shock as she reads the email nobody wants to get about her layoff from Amazon.
Most of us would have shut the camera off and had a meltdown, but Jen, in true Andersonian form, decided to make whimsical, heartfelt art out of tragedy anyway. She filmed a clip of her "mental health walk" with her partner, and then a clip of her walking her dog with the onscreen text, "onward to better things."
It's a perfect contrast to the way the video opens, with a perfectly symmetrical shot of her woefully knocking her head against a wall with the onscreen text, "I was trying to film a cute Wes Anderson-style [work from home video] and accidentally filmed myself getting laid off??!"
People thought the video was deeply moving and perfectly nailed both the West Anderson TikTok trend and the times we're living in.
"I debated if I should even post this," Jen wrote in her caption, "but if you got laid off too just know you’re not alone." People were definitely glad she decided to post it anyway.
"This is actually the correct Wes Anderson aesthetic (so sorry for the layoff!! right there with ya)," one man commented, while another wrote, "This is actually the MOST accurate Wes Anderson video I’ve seen, utter aesthetic tragedy." Jen quipped in response, "Feeling like an utter aesthetic train wreck today."
Many others applauded her for how she was able to turn a terrible situation into something beautiful and moving. "You turned your sad day into a relatable piece of art, I can tell you’re gonna be ok and do great things!" one woman wrote."You thought you were doing a trend but you made a short film!" another commenter posted. "I had emotions!"
One woman pointed out how Jen's video encapsulates many Millennials' lives right now. "This is millennial-core right now, Wes Anderson and everyone getting laid off."
Getting laid off is a terrible experience—as life and career coach María Tomás-Keegan told us in 2018, losing a job can be just as mentally and emotionally taxing as "death, divorce, or a serious illness" and can lead to the same issues, like depression, that those experiences often do.
Jen's decision to redirect such a terrible day into something beautiful and wonderfully human was a stroke of brilliance—one that will surely help others in these difficult times. And it just might pay off for her, too. As a commenter wrote, "So sorry about your job, but on the bright side, with the creativity you’ve shown in this perfect video, I’m sure a better job will come to you soon." Here's hoping. We're all pulling for you, Jen.
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer and TikToker who covers pop culture, social media and human interest topics