In a near-future saturated by technology, Mars introduces Jay to a world outside their company’s confines. “808,” directed by Athina Wilson, is a gritty dystopian vision (shot on 16mm) reckoning with a world lacking in empathy and human touch. Mars is new to the job, a content moderator in a depressing office where her job is to watch potentially disturbing videos all day and then answer “yes” or “no.” This puts her and everyone else who works there in a vulnerable state of mind, prone to outbursts of violence and dismay. That’s where she meets Jay, a guarded young man who’s become numb to the job and to the larger outside world. Mars still has a glimmer of hope and sparks to Jay, attempting to bring some light into his life. Wilson’s film is a raw but imaginative glimpse into a dark future (not so different than the present), delivered with scrappy world building and cautious chemistry between its two leads, Annika Wagar and Jordan Obzarzanek.
Two exes whirl through the memories of their relationship in a single glance. Daniel Antebi directs “Unfold,” an elliptical montage of a young couple reliving their recent past after running into each other on the streets of New York. An awkward exchange spins into a flashback of moods and feelin...
A forgotten handheld camera disrupts the bedtime routine of a single mother and her young son. Pisie Hochheim and Tony Oswald direct “Handheld,” a tender drama on family bonds and frays carried by wonderfully real performances from Jordan Gosnell and Emery Oswald. One night while searching for a ...
Sarah gave Ezra a soul crystal, and that may have been a mistake. “I Love to Wait,” directed by Harrison Atkins, is an imaginative, free-roaming vision of an on-and-off relationship in Los Angeles, a rare melding of the mundane and the mystical. In a world where couples communicate via crystals (...
