Turn on the tv, switch on a streaming service, and you’re going to find some form of programming. These programs, whether you realize it or not, are planned as meticulously as possible to ensure that entertainment is high, all the way down to the production design and set decoration. Sometimes that means building entire sets from scratch in a studio, other times it means going on location somewhere, using what is to create what will be. When it’s the latter, it’s up to the location scouting team to do exactly that, scout for locations that could be a good fit for a scene, an episode, a season, or a feature. In writer/director Paula González-Nasser’s (Limestone) feature-length debut The Scout, having its world premiere in the US Narrative Competition section of Tribeca Film Festival 2025, the filmmaker takes audiences through one day in the life of one such scout as she navigates complex personalities real and metaphorical while trying to find the perfect location. Absent the chaos of “one crazy day” comedies, González-Nasser offers a quiet and frequently meditative story about the spaces people occupy and the way we all must navigate them, regardless of indignities.
L-R: Mimi Davila as Sofia and Rutanya Alda as Anna in THE SCOUT. Photo courtesy of 5th Floor Pictures/Tribeca Film Festival 2025.
On a day like any other, tv scout Sofia (Mimi Davila) leaves her apartment and heads into New York City to the production office where she plans to catch up with the location manager, Jasmin (Lisa Haas), about the updated needs of the shoot. Listening to voice messages from flyer respondents the whole way, she develops a sense of potential apartments and homes to shoot photos of for the producing team. Not finding Jasmin at the office, Sofia hits the road, dropping in on several possible locations, striking up conversations with the inhabitants. However, one location forces Sofia to stop and take stock of things in ways she never expected.
González-Nasser and Davila previously worked together on the short Limestone, Davila once more playing a character named Sofia, though it’s not clear from dialogue spoken in either work whether they are the same character. It’s perhaps hinted a little bit in the sequence shared between Davila and Otmara Marrero (Jackass Forever; Clementine), so one could potentially view The Scout as an extension of the short. Watching the constrained and quiet performance Davila gives in Limestone, one can certainly see why the actor and filmmaker would continue collaborating. In that piece and in the feature, Davila is magnetic, bringing in the audience with a performance that’s assured even when the character is very clearly not. This allows the narrative to remain powerful and coherent in the quiet moments, of which there are many. As the story unfolds, González-Nasser never breaks the conceit of Sofia out on the streets alone, requiring that a lot of context be created within the negative space of moments: how does Sofia react to traffic? To the voice mails? What do the voices sound like on the phone and what energy do their bring to the scene? What’s the traffic look like and how does Sofia engage with her surroundings when seeking parking? More importantly, how does Sofia respond and react to the people she meets? This last portion is where much of the tension comes in as even the most innocuous conversation has the potential to turn whether Sofia is chatting with matriarchal Anna (Rutanya Alda), new father Tyler (Max Rosen), or aquatic store operator Josh (Matt Barats).
L-R: Max Rosen as Tyler and Mimi Davila as Sofia in THE SCOUT. Photo courtesy of 5th Floor Pictures/Tribeca Film Festival 2025.
The first of the three speaks more to the ways in which strangers engage with the private spaces of others and the social awkwardness of intruding for public consumption. As blocked and performed, one gets a sense that Sofia tries to reduce tension wherever possible, asking questions, leaving the door open for stories or other things that can reduce insecurity by having a stranger in one’s home. That González-Nasser starts with Anna is smart as it enables the audience to see how Sofia reacts without general concern for the character’s safety. Moving forward, however, there’s an undercurrent of menace as the very business transactional setup of Sofia arriving invited to take photos of people’s homes turns into something slightly sexual as at least two men appear to flirt with her while she visits. This is not only a terrible breach of etiquette on the part of the invitee, it identifies the constant vigilance that Sofia must be on in order to maintain her own safety, as well as the integrity of her position. She is an individual with no power, seeking volunteers to allow photography of their homes for the chance of being used in a television program, yet others abuse the dynamic in ways that’re grotesque. Nothing is, of course, shown on screen and Sofia is, after far as one can tell, untouched by the end of the narrative, but it speaks to the inherent drama of the narrative that one starts to grow concerned for Sofia’s well-being by virtue of the scummy men she comes into contact with.
While it would make sense to address the style of each space that Sofia photographs, aspects that are instrumental in both the reason that Sofia is within the space as well as representative of the internal conflict we observe as each space is assessed without concern for the homeowners or their stories, the set dressing is less important than the cinematography itself. Handled by Nicola Newton (Pigskin), each frame of The Scout is meticulously thought out from the way a still camera captures an interior space, the way Sofia moves into and around a frame, and what is captured within said frame. Not since Kogonada’s 2017 drama Columbus has a film felt so architecturally centric wherein the way Davila enters and exists a frame, shown at a distance, is as important to conveying Sofia’s perpetual movement amid static decades-old buildings (creating a juxtaposition of Sofia’s own youthful age while feeling aged about her life and her choices against the seemingly immortal structures around her) as a slow pan of a camera within Sofia’s car to visualize how one can feel as though life is moving around them (thereby representing Sofia’s own stagnant feelings toward her work). Between Davila’s small performance and this cinematography, The Scout’s meditative qualities regarding the lives we lead comes into sharp focus.
Mimi Davila as Sofia in THE SCOUT. Photo courtesy of 5th Floor Pictures/Tribeca Film Festival 2025.
Because The Scout takes place over just one day (plus a little extra) and most of it is spent with Sofia taking photos, there’s not much time to get to know her directly. This is where Davila’s performance comes in. Though described above as quiet, restrained is probably more accurate as Sofia seems, herself, as such. At first, one may think it’s because she is traveling, alone, from one stranger’s home to another and, therefore, must make herself smaller in order to ensure she remains personable and safe. However, through the narrative, we start to understand that, while her job may seem dramatic and exciting to those outside the industry, it’s more persistent and wearing without much reward. Additionally, it places her in situations wherein some may try to leverage that good nature for themselves. Davila conveys all of this with a tucked head or an averting glance, a shift of the weight or movement of her equipment, making even the quietest scenes have echoes. With so much riding on what isn’t said, audiences need to be ready to receive what González-Nasser and her cast and crew offer because it may not be plainly stated, opting instead for you to think on what’s occurred and what it means for Sofia and, possibly, for yourself.
Screened during Tribeca Film Festival 2025.
For more information, head to the official Tribeca Film Festival The Scout webpage.
Final Score: 4 out of 5.
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Categories: In Theaters, Reviews
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