ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Joseph Perry writes for the film websites Gruesome Magazine, The Scariest Things, Horror Fuel, The Good, the Bad and the Verdict and Diabolique Magazine; for the film magazines Phantom of the Movies’ VideoScope and Drive-In Asylum; and for the pop culture websites When It Was Cool and Uphill Both Ways. He is also one of the hosts of When It Was Cool’s exclusive Uphill Both Ways podcast and can occasionally be heard as a cohost on Gruesome Magazine’s Decades of Horror: The Classic Era podcast.

An After Hours-type comedy of misfortunes for the mid-2020s, writer/director Brandon Daley’s $POSITIONS finds less-than-lovable loser Mike (Michael Kunicki in an all-in performance) quitting his longtime factory job when his cryptocurrency hits in the $30,000s. Naturally, those figures don’t last for long, and neither does the newfound popularity that he found with his sudden wealth. 

To add insult to injury, his girlfriend Charlene (Kaylyn Carter) gets the better end of the deal when he suggests an open relationship — just ask new flame Lorenzo (Jeffrey A. Hunter). As caretaker for his brother Vinny (Vinny Kress), Mike tries desperately to reaccumulate crypto wealth, even though the brothers’ newly Christian, recovering addict cousin Travis (Trevor Dawkins in a strong supporting role), recently released from prison, tries to convince him that cryptocurrency is a scam.

$POSITIONS is the type of feel-bad comedy in which the protagonist is hard to root for and in which you know matters will only get continuously worse. Daley certainly heaps the challenges onto Mike. 

Daley keeps the proceedings going at a frenetic clip, though the suspense is often tied to shots of the crypto going up or down on Mike’s phone app, with the action doing what it needs to accordingly. If schadenfreude humor is your cup of bitter tea, $POSITIONS is certainly worth a watch.

$POSITIONS screens as part of the 2025 Calgary Underground Film Festival, which runs April 17–27. For more information, visit https://www.calgaryundergroundfilm.org/.