What Next?

What Next? (1922) manifests as a kinetic exploration of escalating domestic chaos, starring Vera Reynolds as a whirlwind of early-century vivacity. The narrative operates through a series of rhythmic, slapstick vignettes where a simple premise—the unpredictability of daily life—metastasizes into a grand-scale comedic disaster. Eddie Barry provides the necessary foil, his physical comedy serving as the grounded anchor to Reynolds' more mercurial energy. The film functions as a celluloid interrogation of the 'flapper' era's burgeoning independence, framed within the traditional constraints of the Christie Comedy format. It eschews the heavy-handed moralizing often found in its contemporaries, opting instead for a pure, breathless pursuit of the next gag, reflecting the frantic pulse of the Roaring Twenties. Each scene builds upon the previous with a structural integrity that belies its seemingly improvisational roots, culminating in a frantic denouement that leaves both the characters and the audience in a state of delighted exhaustion.