{"id":48946,"date":"2025-07-30T23:20:08","date_gmt":"2025-07-31T03:20:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/?p=48946"},"modified":"2025-07-30T23:20:08","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T03:20:08","slug":"positions-fantasia-2025","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/2025\/07\/30\/positions-fantasia-2025\/","title":{"rendered":"$POSITIONS [Fantasia 2025]"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>A crypto-addict loser\u2019s bad decisions pile upon one another, leading to his life falling apart in the anxiety comedy $POSITIONS, written and directed by Brandon Daley, and presented through the Fantasia International Film Festival.<\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

$POSITIONS (capitalized as to match the stylisations of Cryptocurrency) is a new entry in the canon of what\u2019s been called \u201canxiety comedies.\u201d\u00a0 Dark stories of people making bad decisions again and again, where, despite the dark laughs the audience has, we watch as they inch closer to everything falling apart around them. We sit on the edge as it gets worse and worse until it reaches a boiling point of anxiety. Think the Safdie Brothers\u2019 duology Good Time and Uncut Gems, the Coen Brothers\u2019 A Serious Man, Shiva Baby, or Krisha. For those who thrive on second-hand embarrassment, these sorts of films\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

$POSITIONS follows Mike Alvarado, played by a wonderfully manic Michael Kunicki, as he\u2019s the subject of the audience yelling, \u201cdude, just stop. Stop!\u201d Mike is working a menial job, caring for Vinny, his brother with Down\u2019s Syndrome, and his recovering alcoholic father. He also never stops looking at his Crypto account. His two moods, manic and panic, solely depend on whether his crypto is up or down. As you might guess, it\u2019s usually down, and when it’s up, he makes even worse decisions. It\u2019s a film of making terrible decisions and the audience is forced ot watch it happen.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I so do not understand Crypto. Maybe I\u2019m just an old man (an achy 43), but I just can\u2019t wrap my head around it. Luckily, the movie just treats it like anyone watching the market, one specific stock they think is on the edge of going big. I still recall when some of my Navy buddies got really into silver. They each bought about a hundred bucks worth and spent every minute checking to see if it went up, like the hundred bucks of silver will suddenly become a hundred thousand. It was frustrating, and no matter how many people tried to explain it to them (and to go back to work, those altimeters aren\u2019t going to fix themselves), they stayed glued to their little investment.<\/span><\/p>\n

They have the same thought process as Mike. He\u2019s the type of guy who continually thinks, \u201cif this one thing works, it\u2019ll all be okay,\u201d but it\u2019s always lofty things. Every decision he makes is rash, seeing an impossible lining and outcome. Every one of these decisions is met with someone saying, \u201cMaybe let\u2019s not.\u201d\u00a0 And everyone backfires. Quitting the job, selling a house, and opening up the relationship with his girlfriend. No thoughts, just action. Even if not bartering in a sliver of silver, we all know people like this. That\u2019s what makes $POSITIONS so interesting. It\u2019s said we\u2019re all two paychecks away from poverty. But what if we\u2019re the ones setting ourselves up for failure?<\/span><\/p>\n

He\u2019s an interesting character study, as is the case in this sort of film. By all accounts, he\u2019s a loser – no one respects him, he tries too hard, and he lives on the edge of everyone\u2019s lives. He claims to be straight edge and condescendingly gets on people who aren\u2019t. But he\u2019s blind to his addictions, that being the crypto and how much of the boiling pot is due to him climbing in willingly and turning on the heat. We laugh despite how terrible he is as a brother, boyfriend, son, etc., in the sheer audacity.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

It\u2019s a film about addictions and getting caught in cycles. Mike\u2019s addictions and explorations, the ones he avoids from family trauma, and the ones he doesn\u2019t realize he has. A little of his dad\u2019s demons. The people around him, in addition to the party lifestyle. His cousin, trying to get on the straight and narrow, is pulled into Mike\u2019s hairbrained schemes.\u00a0 Miopic outlooks for all, but that\u2019s life in dead-end small towns.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Brandon Daley, with cinematography by Drew Angle, creates a world where we can see why Mike would be the way he is, even if we hate him for it. It\u2019s a bleak, depressing, grey Midwest. There might not be an escape, and becoming hopelessly addicted to Crypto or other things is a quick way out if it works.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

$POSITIONS is an interesting, darkly funny journey of a man\u2019s never-succeeding quest to be anything but himself. With a great, manic lead performance and a never-ending series of miseries, Brandon Daley succeeded where his protagonist failed.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

$POSITIONS is presented as part of the Fantasia International Film Festival, running July 16th through August 3rd. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A crypto-addict loser\u2019s bad decisions pile upon one another, leading to his life falling apart in the anxiety comedy $POSITIONS, written and directed by Brandon Daley, and presented through the Fantasia International Film Festival.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":32,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2497,1284],"tags":[259,3778],"class_list":["post-48946","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-fantasia-fest","category-festivalsevents","tag-dark-comedy","tag-festival"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48946","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/32"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=48946"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48946\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":48950,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/48946\/revisions\/48950"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=48946"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=48946"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.cinema-crazed.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=48946"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}