Her Friend Adam
Familiar Faces
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Drama, Short Films, 30-Aug-2016
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 Grace Glowicki, who won a Jury Award at Sundance this year, are the main attractions, but the short also boasts impressive tension-building -- a relationship drama filled with doom. Robert is a short, bespectacled writer experiencing a flare-up of insecurity about his relationship to his girlfriend, Liv, a fiery painter with a keen interest in the sexually provocative. Their rough night begins when Robert suspects Liv isn't telling him something about her day, and he won't drop it. When he crosses the line into invading her personal privacy, the fireworks really begin. The hot-button issue is Liv's friend Adam who Robert doesn't like because he's tall and handsome and flirts with Liv, or so he says. But Liv feels differently and defends herself. The argument that follows finds the couple sparring through the apartment trading vicious jabs. It's a startling feat of short form storytelling that offers incredibly rich characterizations and impeccable scene-building. It gives both characters equal opportunity to behave childishly, while inducing uncomfortable squirms of recognition in the way great art does. Directed by Ben Petrie, who was recently named one of the Top 25 New Faces by Filmmaker.
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