A scene from Birds Without Feathers (Wendy McColm)

There are lots of alienated people skulking about the southwestern United States, according to this darkly funny ensemble piece that recently debuted at the Slamdance Film Festival. They include a self-help guru, an aspiring stand-up comic, two women who readily and regularly change their appearances, and a would-be cowboy. Many spend the film either walking around in a daze or hiding from the world; they alternately nurse unspoken emotional wounds or inflict new ones upon others.

Based on the opening montage, in which nearly every character either speaks into a tape recorder or to their reflection in a mirror, it’s clear these people spend too much time in their own heads. Technology is a resource they all share, but rather than help foster connections, it seems to have the opposite effect, as evidenced by a scene featuring a Russian immigrant in Los Angeles, Tom (Alexander Stasko). Through an app, he goes on a date with Jo (Lenae Day), and it goes well until a miscommunication occurs and she starts insulting him in the most condescending way.

As it turns out, Jo is acquainted with the self-help guru, Daniel (Cooper Oznowicz), who might be the loneliest character in the film, though ironically, his pep talks are like directions on how not to form emotional bonds with others. (Among his more memorable quips: “If you feel sad, pretend that you’re happy” and “If you’re feeling down, put someone else down.”) A close second place among sad sacks would be Janet (Wendy McColm), although upon closer inspection, she doesn’t seem to have much of an inner life herself. She is, however, obsessed with her social media following and patterning her physical appearance after Janet Jackson, the latter ostensibly to please her boyfriend. (Janet, it’s worth noting, is white, so these attempts come across as bizarre at best and racially insensitive at worst.)

Birds Without Feathers marks the feature-length directorial debut of McColm, whose background in sketch comedy informs much of the film’s structure and pacing. Some of the film’s funniest moments resemble two-minute-long skits: one involves Janet being stood up at a restaurant by her boyfriend. While talking to him on the phone, he coerces her into phone sex, which is constantly interrupted by the ebb and flow of the wait staff. The overall bleakness of the humor is reminiscent of Todd Solondz, especially in how those at the receiving end of the joke tend to be humiliated—though to her credit, McColm bears much of the abuse by playing Janet herself.

The film’s multiple story lines share a number of common themes, including characters who aspire to an ideal. There’s a would-be comedian, Sam (William Gabriel Grier), who spends more time fantasizing about being successful than actually performing stand-up. Similarly, Andy basks in the neon glow of a Las Vegas casino and later procures a prostitute—clichéd high-rolling gambler fantasy stuff. But once he’s back in his hotel room with her, he awkwardly seeks a deeper connection. Even Janet expends a significant amount of effort on trying to impersonate Janet Jackson, but it’s an imitation of a very superficial sort.

Along with Solondz, there is a dreamlike outdoor campfire scene that seems inspired by David Lynch, while the way in which certain female protagonists’ identities become fluid resembles Robert Altman’s 3 Women (1979). But McColm has her own unique way of telling a story, too, such as cutting back and forth between close-ups during conversation sequences. This underscores how her characters talk more “at” each other than with and how they aren’t necessarily listening when the other speaks.

But style aside, Birds Without Feathers is an incisive satire of our present-day world, in all its digital distractions that stand in for human contact.