Vertical Valor
Comedy • Comedy, War, Short Films, 20-Apr-2023
After being drafted for World War III, a group of burnout skateboarders are recruited into a casualty notification unit. “Vertical Valor,” directed by Alex Kavutskiy, takes an inspired premise and pumps it full of dopiness and absurdity, a war comedy that never hits the battlefield. Calvin and Bartholomew are two L.A. stoners with the unenviable task of informing military families of their recently deceased loved ones. That the skateboarders bungle the job should be assumed but these two go above and beyond the call of duty. Perfectly half-baked, the film sets its inappropriately casual attitudes and sick skateboarding footage to the tune of, you know, some general patriotic scoring. We’ve featured Kavutskiy several times before (see link below) and he’s in fine form here with the help of some repeat offenders, particularly the on-screen lunacy of Jon Millstein and Clay Tatum. -KA. Writer, director: Alex Kavutskiy. Cast: Jon Millstein, Clay Tatum, Andrew Michaan, Zach Zdziebko, Nathan Graham Smith, DeMorge Brown, Chelsea Morgan. Director of Photography: Moses Goldfarb. Editor: Jerzy Rose. Composer: Jason Martin Castillo.
Directed by Alex Kavutskiy: https://www.nobudge.com/directed-by-alex-kavutskiy
Up Next in Comedy
-
No Other Gods But Me
In the midst of a sexual awakening, a religious teen finally musters up the courage to kiss her crush. “No Other Gods But Me,” directed by Alex Spott, is a sensuous comedy about lust and temptation delivered with glistening, hyper-saturated visuals. The devout Gemma spends her days praying to the...
-
Bike Thief
After her bike is stolen, a young woman scours L.A. in hopes of reuniting with her one true love. Yvette Lu and Leanne Velednitsky direct “Bike Thief,” a lo-fi comedy that’s both an ode to bike ownership and a depiction of the heartaches that come with it. Having had her bike stolen several times...
-
The Event
It's 2 AM and Vince just wants to know why his best friend hasn’t watched his short film yet. Hugo De Sousa and Frank Mosley direct “The Event,” a painfully awkward dark comedy about the deep speculation and confusion of not feeling supported in an artistic pursuit. Incisively written and perfect...
