In a broken attempt to find a woman who has broken his heart, a Manhattan shoe salesman fearlessly throws himself into the world of guerilla filmmaking, creating a 'modern day message in a bottle' - actually a videotape - hoping that someone seeing it (maybe you?) will know his ex-girlfriend. To help the viewer understand who he is and why his girlfriend left him, this neophyte filmmaker hires a temperamental actress to play his ex and together they reenact scenes from his failed relationship. During the course of filming, Michael's mistakes, blunders and inadequacies as a boyfriend are mercilessly pointed out to him. This Is Not A Film is a romantic comedy about making a mistake and recognizing it in the most painful way possible - by making it all over again.

Returning home from a trip to visit his mother, Nick discovers that a good friend of his, Sid, has apparently raped his girlfriend, Mary. More concerned with his own wounded pride than with Mary's lingering feelings of guilt, pain and betrayal, Nick vows revenge.