HollyShorts Film Festival 2023: Comedy

The HollyShorts Film Festival is in full swing and loaded with a high-craftsmanship of content for all its viewers. And amongst the horrors, dramas, and animation, the festival never forgets to laugh.

They Grow Up So Fast (John F. Beach)

John F. Beach‘s They Grow Up So Fast is a whirlwind paradoxical comedy that is over as soon as it begins. For some, it will have you ensuring you have slipped a condom into your wallet, for others a deep understanding of how quickly life moves. Amy (Emily Althaus) and Brian (John F. Beach) go home together after meeting at the bar. As they enter Amy’s apartment she remarks on the boxes strewn around the room having just moved to the area. Yet, the bedroom – the bedroom is all set up.

As Brian wakes up the next morning, he is shocked to find that more than a night has passed and Amy is now pregnant – morning sickness and all. From this moment, Brian’s intended one-night stand becomes a rollercoaster ride of parenthood. While he attempts to fight what is happening to him, he finds there is no escape. Brian tries to fight what is happening to him, refusing to give in and experience the moments as they come – pushing back against each staple of growth from birth until he is handed a grandchild of his own.

The short is not afraid to lean into the fears and pressures of parenthood, They Grow Up So Fast brilliantly executes the humor as well as the horror of passing time and lost memories. And while it will have you laughing through most of its run time, it will leave you deep in thought by the time the credits roll.

Full Time (Jon Ryan Sugimoto)

Social commentary is often best delivered through comedy. More easily digested, comedy helps the viewers not only enjoy the film but to take in deeply what it is saying. And Jon Ryan Sugimoto‘s Full Time has a lot to say.

From its very opening, it is light-hearted and full of promise, three graduates making their way through the city. They are young and lively, the future seemingly wide open before them. One of the students (Andrew Lutheran) is singled out by a well-dressed gentleman (Iddo Goldberg), asking if he can help him with something. Promised fifty dollars to stand in a square box until 5pm, the student agrees to help the gentleman out. When he returns as promised, he offers the student a full-time job – every day to just… stand in the square.

As the years pass by, the student does as he is told growing older, larger boxes presented as “promotions” with higher salaries. He stands in the square day in and day out, watching his friends and the world pass by him. By the film’s end, he is an old man ready for retirement. And while he has given years of loyal service, his departure is met with only a good job and a handshake.

Full Time does not dive heavily into the comedic tropes to elevate its messaging, the narrative of the short is strong enough to carry the film allowing the humor to accentuate beautifully. Light-hearted in nature, Full Time is observational as much as it is a warning towards giving your life completely to one thing and letting everything else pass you by.

Pickled Herring (Milana Vayntrub)

I have a growing list of favorite shorts from this year’s festival, and Milana Vayntrub‘s Pickled Herring is one of them. It is quirky and lovable, all with the weight of devotion and love within a family. It opens with the sound of a baby crying, a young woman racing to meet the noise. Though it is not a baby, but rather a phone alarm she addresses, a reminder to take her birth control, “idiot”, an immediate embracing of its comedic folds. As she makes her way back down the hall, she slips and falls, the screen going dark.

The quirkiness of the opening draws you in, the need to find out what has happened to this young woman drives you to move forward. Viewers quickly learn she is injured and in need of home care, Pickled Herring introduces her father who is to stay with her while her husband is away on business. Audiences will instantly fall in love with Dimiter D. Marinov as he brings an irresistible devotion to his character. Always with the right intentions, his mishaps while caring for his daughter bring sweetness to everything he does.

Pickled Herring is not afraid to go deep though, taking each of these moments of comedy to reveal the existing rift between father and daughter. Pickled Herring has a lot of meat in its short 18-minute runtime and honestly, I would have liked the opportunity to get to know these characters more and see where they go from here. To see the growth between father and daughter – and even more on the mysterious Sergi.

Confessions (Stephanie Kaznocha)

Out of all the short films I have seen thus far, can we please have a sequel to this one? By far one of the best to come out of the 2023 HollyShorts, I just can not get enough of this one. Stephanie Kaznocha‘s Confessions opens at the foot of the altar, a nun fallen dead. As two of her fellow nuns look over her, they confess the envious nature of this moment, each wishing they too had died.

Like a bunch of school girls, they move through the church and the courtyard, eventually spilling into the town outside the monastery’s gates, making confessions to one another in quiet whispers. As they move from one location to another, they confess their deepest darkest secrets and desires that have never been spoken before. While it begins as confessions of wishing to die – whether while sleeping or an illness that lets them be gushed over a bit – transforms into an attempt to satisfy the regrets of their life. No matter how big or small.

Confessions commits to its humor from start to finish, contrasting the confessions and desire the women have to the restrictions imposed on them through their marriage to Jesus. The success of Confessions lies in its script as much as its does in its leading ladies of Carol Herman and Eve Sigall. Honestly, I could not get enough of them, their humor and innocence connected deeply with the audience and delivered one of the funniest short films I have seen in a long time.

I Probably Shouldn’t Be Telling You This (Emma Weinswig)

Unfortunately, Emma Weinswig‘s I Probably Shouldn’t Be Telling You This has been my least favorite film of the festival thus far. Included within the Comedy segment – I failed to find the humor. Two young adult influencers meeting to record a podcast begin revealing their inner feelings, always leaving an air of questionability towards their truth.

Sadly, though, it felt more like the ramblings of individuals still working to discover themselves and their identity. And while this angle of narrative could have worked in a comedic setting, for I Probably Shouldn’t Be Telling You This it falls flat. A darker and deeper comedy, it feels never ready to commit to the deeper themes and underlying conversations restricted by the genre it was presented within. Too often, much of the conversation and darker themes here felt as though they did not deserve to be laughed at. There is a story here, one that is primed to be explored further, but sadly not as a comedy.

The Ladies (Jill Gutowitz)

To be upfront and honest, I had mixed feelings about Jill Gutowitz‘s The Ladies. It’s been hard for me to put a finger on exactly what it was that just didn’t sit right with me. The film had all the right elements to craft a well-executed comedy, but all too often it felt as if it was just not coming together. The film opens with Emma (Alexis G. Zall) arriving at her grandmother’s house. As she peers into the window, seemingly sneaking into the house after being out all night, audiences will quickly come to understand the grief the grandmother is feeling at the recent loss of her husband.

As Emma makes her way upstairs undetected, she runs into her cousin Josh (Jaren Lewison), the two engaging in banter regarding her evening escapades. It’s hard to connect with Emma and Josh, a lack of chemistry leaves their interactions feeling scripted and unauthentic. As they both make their way downstairs, they find their grandmother in a dispute with her friend Blanche (Lisa Ann Walker) about whether or not a photo had been sent about a particular water the grandmother was fond of. With the entire ensemble gathered in the room, they are meant to have known each other for years, but their interactions leave them feeling like strangers.

As Emma tries to hide the affair she is having with her grandmother’s best friend, her secret is about to be revealed, the film fails to connect with the humor of the moment. Had there been more chemistry between the quartet, there is a chance the humor of The Ladies would have landed as the audience would feel a connection and invested in what is happening on screen.

Laura and Diane Forever (Hannah Alline)

Hannah Alline‘s Laura and Diane Forever was the best way to end the comedy showcase. Quick and effective, it is committed from start to finish. Raunchy, quirky and unrelenting, this one will steal your heart. Feeling like a high-production Saturday Night Live skit, Laura and Diane Forever captures the hilarious, albeit toxic, relationship between bride Laura and her childhood best friend.

Driven by jealousy, Laura (Hannah Alline) spills all of Diane’s (Becca Seferian) deepest darkest secrets, isolating her from her college pals and ensuring she is once again the only friend for her. With a runtime of only 5 minutes, Laura and Diane Forever never lets off the gas.

For more information on the festival click here.