After a difficult break-up, Annie reckons with the imminent departure of another close friend who is moving away from their shared apartment and city. From a script she co-wrote with Hannah Rehak, Nina Slesinger directs “Downbeat,” an intelligent and emotionally astute portrait of friendship and platonic intimacy that captures a range of reactions on the subject of goodbyes and moving on. While Annie waits for the results of an STD test (she takes it because her ex-boyfriend cheated on her), she deals with feelings of abandonment as her current roommates, Mac and Grace, are moving from Chicago to Boston. As they soak up their final days together, Annie makes her emotions known to Mac — that she feels upset and left behind. But her period of emotional free-fall finds some release in an unexpected outlet when she begins drumming lessons with an upstairs neighbor. A film that delivers specificity in richly designed friendships and social / work life milieus, the film is seeping with emotion and nostalgia, and brought home with a couple of indelible musical moments.

Director: Nina Slesinger. Assistant director: Hannah Rehak. Written by Nina Slesinger and Hannah Rehak. Cast: Tina Muñoz Pandya, Olivia Nielsen, Vivian Sille. Director of Photography: Jana McLain. Editor: Will Sonheim. Producer: Rayna Caskey. Original music by: Kerry Alexander.