Fran (Patsy Ferran, a force of nature in this) has the idea that if she looks through the phone book and cold calls men all across the country with the last name Kafka that she can find her soul mate. She has no job, a Ph.D. and a $700 phone bill from all those calls in the middle of the night.

Director Robin Blake (who also wrote the script with Nick Blake and Marianne Wiggins) somehow take the idea of one woman on the phone with a thick Boston accent trying to find the Kafka man who will take her all away from this doesn’t seem like it would be the movie that would get in my head and stay there, but here we are. This is so darn well made and mesmerizing and man, Patsy Ferran is absolutely incredible at this dialogue that sounds like she really said it and no one wrote it and that is the best dialogue of all.

I watched this at the North Bend Film Festival, which you can learn more about on their official site.

Break Any Spell impacted me more than nearly any other short that I’ve seen in some time, as it made me think about the deteriorating mental condition of my father and how lost we become thanks to dementia and Alzheimer’s and just plain age.

Directed by Anton Jøsef, who co-wrote the film with Lisi Purr, some will watch this and laugh at the Live Action Role Playing (LARP) that the heroine falls in love with, but it seems like that’s her tether to keep her going in the world, as her mother begins to disappear and become someone else due to early stage Alzheimer’s.

The moment when the magic spell she’s been saving and all the work of her team means nothing in the face of a big man from out of nowhere with a sword? That’s life. That’s exactly how this life feels.

This movie feels like it needs more, that it could be part of a longer tale, but for what it is now, it is supremely powerful.

I watched this at the North Bend Film Festival, which you can learn more about on their official site.

Daniel (Billy Flynn) and Toni (Tipper Newton, who directed and wrote this short) have been matched by a video dating service that feels inspired by the Found Footage Festival Videomate videos. The date is awkward, as every time Daniel seems to impress Toni or gain ground, she tears him down, builds him up and then cuts him down all again, sometimes in the same moment.

So how does he make it back to her place? And if he’s the first date from the service she’s been on, why are there so many videotapes everywhere? And who is that threatening her on the answering machine?

Wild Card gets exciting right when it ends, right at the moment that it has been teasing and it demands that you watch more. I loved it and it got me — so please, give us that second date.

Seeing this again after watching it at the Chattanooga Film Festival, I was struck by just how much it gets right from the neo-giallo erotic thriller look of the 90s and how much I want even more of this.

I watched this at the North Bend Film Festival, which you can learn more about on their official site.

While monitoring late-night calls at an AI companionship service, a lonely customer support agent named Leah (Sera Barbieri, Potato Dreams of America) acts as one of the artificial dream girls — Rachel — to chat with Isaac (Anthony Shipway), a customer that she’s in love with.

As we grow more disconnected and alone in our private bubbles, the idea of callable companionship and GFE (Girl Friend Experience) doesn’t seem so alien any longer. It’s to the credit of the direction by Joanny Causse (who co-wrote the script with Steph Kwiatkowski) that this seems so daring and original, as well as the great acting by Barbieri.

This movie totally deserves the awards that it’s been earning, such as the Grand Jury Award for Best Short Film at the  Seattle International Film Festival 2022 and the Jury Award for Best Screenplay at Fantasia International Film Festival 2021.

I watched this at the North Bend Film Festival, which you can learn more about on their official site. You can also read more about Rachels Don’t Run at its official site.

Susan’s (Carie Kawa) has had her career as a cold case writer fall apart, so she’s hiding out at a friend’s remote vacation house. When she gets there, she meets Eddy (Will Brill) and Abby (Grace Morrison). He’s digging sludge out of the backyard; she makes a spot of tea a strange and not altogether pleasant affair. They’re the caretakers of the home, or so they say, but then Susan hears a baby cry a room away.

Trust me, that’s no normal baby.

Director and writer Alex Fofonoff may only have two other sorts on his resume, but this tense and well-acted piece points to him as a person of interest. If this was longer — it totally could be — it would be a movie plenty of people were talking about.

I watched this at the North Bend Film Festival, which you can learn more about on their official site. You can also read more about While Mortals Sleep at its official site.