In the high-stakes, low-budget world of competitive furniture assembly, one man’s quest for a simple bookshelf becomes an epic comedy of errors in the short film Buckling Under the Pressure. Directed by and starring Xaden Carlson, the film follows a hapless everyman whose confidence crumbles faster than particle board as he attempts to decipher a set of notoriously cryptic instructions. His journey is hilariously complicated by the unexpected arrival of a smugly competent friend, played by Charles Zilge, whose mere presence turns a simple DIY project into a bizarre test of masculinity and mental fortitude. This rapid-fire three-minute comedy captures the universal frustration of flat-pack furniture, escalating ordinary household pressure into a sidesplitting spectacle of sweat, misplaced screws, and existential dread. The film masterfully builds an atmosphere of escalating absurdity, proving that sometimes the greatest battles are fought not in arenas, but in living rooms with an Allen key in hand.