Bananahead (2024)

Selected to screen at the 2024 HollyShorts Film Festival, director Christopher Greenslate’s “Bananahead” is an unnerving and well told tale about legacy and impostor syndrome. It’s very much a horror movie, but it’s also a very stark movie about hitting a bar that someone previously left and a lot of what they can leave behind after they have gone. Sally Maersk is a stunner in the role as Andi Sanger, a young performer who gives herself the inherent pressure of taking on a role in the adaptation in her mom’s best selling book “Bananahead.”

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American Daydream (2024)

Where is the American dream bred? In the heart or in the head? Director-Writer Ziyu Luo’s “American Daydream” is a classic ode to the idea of the American dream and our pursuit of it. Is the “American Dream” an unreachable goal, or something that we each have within us, personally? Recently having its world premiere at the HollyShorts Film Festival, “American Daydream” is a brilliant beautiful short drama comedy that explores ideas about immigration, assimilation and Americanization.

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And Now I Lay Me Down (2024)

I really have to give it to Jane Kaczmarek who stars in “And Now I Lay Me Down.” She really is a marvel in what is a pretty gut wrenching movie that approaches a serious topic with a tongue in cheek. Kaczmarek is essentially the only cast member in the entirety of Rani DeMuth’s short drama comedy and commands a lot of the screen with such an immense powerful and intense sadness.

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A Two Hearted Tale (2023)

Dave Chappelle asked for a Bell’s Beer during a comedy set in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Taking a sip, he casually called out, “The Two-Hearted Ale? Why the hell did you put a fish on the label? ” This is the story of that iconic trout label adorning the most popular it IPA beer in America, and its eccentric artist, Ladislav Hanka.

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Fuck You, Cupid (2024)

Having its world premiere at the LA International Short Film Festival, director Felipe Marinheiro’s short romance is a cute but interesting short about the ideas of fate, and whether or not destiny exists. There’s always that concept of ignorance being bliss and the protagonist of “Fuck You, Cupid” decides to tempt fate.

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Flatters (2024)

Having had its world premiere at the LA Shorts International Film Festival, Dennis Flippin and Doug Wyckoff’s short comedy is a bizarre tale of being careful what you wish for. “Flatters” excels a lot at weird, absurdist comedy that lampoons the whole system of conspiracy theorists, while also putting its main character in to a hole that he might not be able to escape any time soon.

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Belief (2024)

Premiering at the LA Shorts International Film Festival, “Belief” directed by Christian Loubek is a very good short film about mothers. Christian Loubek’s drama is a great tribute to the big things and little things that our mothers make for us. Whether it’s the big things we see, or small things we don’t see, mothers sacrifice a ton and give up a lot of themselves to ensure enrichment for their children.

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