Her Friend Adam
Drama
•
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.
Up Next in Drama
-
Sweet Things
Anne gathers herself for a job interview, a casual one at a coffee shop, but still a job interview. When her potential new employer arrives, a smooth, well-dressed man named Georg, giving off all the social cues of a first date, she’s caught off-guard and scrambles to react. Brilliantly observed ...
-
Girlpower
Waking in the home of a one night stand, a woman steals one thing while forgetting another. “Girlpower,” directed by Caydon LiRocchi, is a minimal, richly observed character study about a morning in the life of a young woman in L.A. Slowly we learn fragments about her life. She has an upcoming do...
-
Muscle Memory
On the anniversary of his father’s death, Tariq dedicates a dance to him, triggering childhood memories. “Muscle Memory,” directed by Saladin White II, is a poignant tone poem about fatherhood presented in vignettes of the present day and flashbacks. We follow Tariq, himself a father to a young b...