Mean Spirit
From the Archives
•
Short Films, 28-Jul-2020
Two friends enjoying a night to themselves realize they're not the only ones in the apartment. “Mean Spirit,” directed by Nick Funess, is a darkly funny snapshot of gossiping pals, bad roommates and getting caught in an awkward situation. While drinking wine one night, one of the friends, played by the film’s co-writer Samantha Carroll, expresses dismay with her new roommate — she writes notes when the dishes don’t get done, and cries herself to sleep because “she’s like a hospice nurse or something.” When the chit-chat is interrupted, the girls head out for cigarettes before returning to the apartment for an unsettling surprise. Writer/star Carroll is a talented director in her own right, responsible for two previous shorts we’ve featured, “Damsel,” and “Toxic,” both incisive portraits of self-absorbed young people. She’s just as astute in front of the camera, alternating between free-flowing shit talk and face-saving cordiality.
Up Next in From the Archives
-
Finally, Lillian and Dan
A meditation on young love and its delicate hope and exhilaration, as well as its loneliness and naivete. This 2007 film had several prestigious festival screenings and then disappeared. It shouldn’t have — it’s a wholly unique and amazingly delicate piece of art. Lillian and Dan bump and misstep...
-
Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary
When aliens land in America looking for a female virgin to abduct, a sexually repressed young woman desperately attempts to lose her virginity. “Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary,” directed by Rachael Moton, is a lighthearted satire filled with clever details about a world where body autonomy has vanish...
-
Thus Began Antoine's Down-Going
Spending his days in a café in Paris watching people, Antoine falls for a woman he sees walking to the cinema. Paul Rigoux directs “Thus Began Antoine's Down-Going,” a poetic contemplation of love, art, and self; both an iconic depiction of a youthful French romance and a meta dissection of one. ...
