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"Keep moving forward." "It's the only direction we have." Vertical has revealed a fun trailer for Wyrm, an awkward indie comedy from filmmaker Christopher Winterbauer. This was his feature debut, adapting his own short film (that we posted back in 2019), and it initially premiered in 2019 at Fantastic Fest. It's never been released until now, and in the meantime Winterbauer made a movie for HBO called Moonshot. In an alternative 1990s that feels equal parts Yorgos Lanthimos and Todd Solondz (but gentler), an awkward teen must complete a school requirement in which students wear electronic collars that detach only upon their first kiss. Scary! Will he pass his Level One or end held back and embarrassed? They definitely sounds like a cousin to Lanthimos' The Lobster. It stars Theo Taplitz as Wyrm, Lulu Wilson, Sosie Bacon, Natasha Rothwell, Paula Pell, Azure Brandi; with Tommy Dewey, Dan Bakkedahl, Rosemarie DeWitt, Lukas Gage,...

"I like your black eye." A must watch short film - one of the best of the year so far. Wyrm is a short written and directed by Christopher Winterbauer, that originally premiered in 2017 and is now available online after playing on the festival circuit for a while. The nerdy-retro short is about a kid in school who must kiss someone in order to have his My.E.Q. Remote Monitoring collar removed. It's making fun of the feeling that you have to achieve some kind of romantic contact in order to progress in life. And while Winterbauer says Lanthimos's The Lobster was an inspiration, he did originally come up with the idea for this when he was 15 and afraid he was behind everyone else kissing a girl. Starring Reid Miller as Wyrm, with Azure Brandi, Skye Popov, Aidan Dorn Wallenstein, Davey Johnson. (And the voice of Bob Odenkirk.) There's...