For Your Consideration

Greetings again from the darkness. I can't recall being as recently thankful for a good laugh as I was after watching this expert 13 minute satire from writer-director Poppy Gordon and co-writer Aldo Arias. The dialogue is sharp, the performances spot on, and the topic couldn't be more relevant to the moment.

Heather (Samantha Robinson) is enjoying her daily yoga in the backyard of her Beverly Hills mansion when she arranges a meeting with her two friends, Stacia (Juliette Goglia) and Christa (Ava Capri). The purpose of their meeting, held at a private club, is to create the perfect Oscar-caliber movie using the "Sundance formula" - a message movie addressing contemporary issues.

Of course, the best intentions of these three white privileged women is nothing short of cringe-inducing and hilarious. They are simply clueless on how their lot in life skews their perspective, and they clearly are in this for the recognition, rather than to make a difference. Director Gordon divides the film into three Phases (Concepting, Focus Groups, Pre-Production) mirroring the movie development process. During the Focus Group phase, there is a TANGERINE reference, a welcome shout-out to Sean Baker's 2015 film shot with an iPhone.

Satire is not an easy form of comedy, as it requires terrific writing on 'touchy' subjects, and a full buy-in from performers. This little film wraps it all into a tight package that makes its point, while delivering laughs.