A young woman becomes flustered when her boyfriend refuses to help prepare for an upcoming trip. Surreal moments begin to add up — Alex’s tooth falls out, an entire body of water lies just outside her window. Dauterman nails the feeling of a nightmare, say when your partner becomes inexplicably u...

A frustrated, out of work actor turns to medical acting to pay his bills, offering intensely committed performances to students who are simply trying to diagnose symptoms, not evaluate believability. The actor, Paul (played by Alex Karpovsky) wants to be great but without a traditional audience i...

Two teens in a small desert city earn cash standing on the side of the street holding signs for cheap loans. They make a game of it, spinning the signs like they’re doing skateboard tricks. “More tricks, more money, dawg,” says the baller white kid teaching a newbie the ropes of the street in a g...

On their first day living together, a young couple experiences ghosts from their past. “Houseplants,” from director Prashanth Kamalakanthan, is an elliptical drama that glimpses into the private life of Alma and Ron, a struggling couple on a vulnerable day. Over time, your partner changes and you...

An incisive dissection of jealousy, and the need for independence within a relationship. It stumbles into some absurdly funny territory, but it's largely a drama, one that burrows deep quickly and leaves you feeling punched in the gut. The explosive performances by writer/director Ben Petrie and ...

The new satirical video tutorial from filmmaker John Wilson explores the world of regrets, both big and small. A bad haircut or a broken phone may not seem like a huge deal but it may cause "cascading effects that lead to long-term regret." With his signature halting voice-over, Wilson weaves in ...

An awkward guest shows up to a party and makes things weird for everyone. Written by Kate Berlant, Andrew DeYoung and John Early, “Rachel” is a hilariously creepy portrait of a strange evening in the lives of a group of L.A. creatives. Early stars as the man throwing a party for his boyfriend, Go...

A peculiar miracle binds together a pregnant nun in 1960s Ireland and a gas station attendant 25 years later in West Texas. | Directed by Eli Powers. Cast: Amanda Seyfried, Philip Ettinger, Thomas Sadoski, Dan Bakkedahl.

A very unfunny family history is spun into brilliant comedy from co-directors Samy Burch and Alex Mechanik. They begin with a doozy of a premise and keep pushing. When it all comes together, it feels like a wallop, but it’s largely packaged as a deadpan farce about a group therapy session. Bev is...

An attempted e-commerce transaction goes awry. | Director: Ryan McGlade. Cast: Edy Modica, Tynan DeLong.

A young man cycles through a series of personas in a manic attempt to find himself. “Yamashiro LIVE!”, directed by Blake James Reid and Max Frumkin, is a fever dream odyssey carved from pure provocation, a melting-down outsider vision of an ineffectual shape-shifter. The man floods each of his un...

After being fired as a school administrator, a man turns to modeling to spread the word of God. “Seth’s Prayer,” directed by Danny Scharar, is a ludicrous comedy about unblinking faith and Christian ambition. Canned from his job for trying to indoctrinate children with his religious beliefs, Seth...

Two strangers are brought together by a video dating service. Tipper Newton directs and stars in “Wild Card,” a retro romantic thriller shot on 16mm and set in 1980's Los Angeles. We meet Daniel, shy and soft spoken, as he records his introduction video for a VHS subscription dating service. Intr...

Haunted by recurring nightmares, a weary cowboy looks to the Bible for solace. Jaxon Whittington directs “Pink Wings,” a pulpy, mysterious fever-dream filled with religious imagery and 'west coast drifter' style. In a black and red dress and white cowboy boots, a young woman listens as her grandf...

The brilliantly loony “Observatory Blues” tells the life story of Fernando Music, a writer born with no hands that becomes famous for a series of books about space and sex. Beautifully shot on 16mm and featuring a genius cast moving in all kinds of glorious directions (including a narration by Hu...

Playing a version of himself, director Whitmer (aka Whit) Thomas drifts through L.A., meeting up with a series of friends and alienating them in various ways. Both comedic and revealing, "Fast and Loose" is a casual hang but an incisive one. As a self-reflection of a particular sort of friend gro...

Four friends parked in a car do a ceremony in the middle of the woods. It goes badly. Made by the preeminent Brooklyn comedy group, Simple Town, “Scary Car” is lo-fi horror comedy at its finest, a brilliantly executed account of an unexplainable occurrence. After a passionate conversation about U...

Four music videos flow together in this dreamy and entrancing short film directed by Adinah Dancyger and Kaya Wilkins. “There is A River” includes tracks from the indie pop musician Okay Kaya’s second album, “Watch This Liquid Pour Itself,” to create an experimental work of beautifully captured m...