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Dark Star Pictures has acquired the North American rights to Brandon Daley’s feature debut, “$Positions,” ahead of its Quebec premiere at the Fantasia Film Festival. The official title is stylized “$Positions” by the filmmakers, denoting cryptocurrencies.

Per an official synopsis, “$Positions” follows a “blue-collar Midwesterner as he attempts to save his family from the throes of poverty by investing their savings into speculative cryptocurrencies. As his investment strategy decays into a full-blown gambling addiction, he sends his life into a nightmarish anxiety-inducing downward spiral.”

The film stars Michael Kunicki, Vinny Kress, Trevor Dawkins and Kaylyn Carter. Jake Bloom and Ben Gojer produced “$Positions,” while executive producers include Eddie Linker, Steve Lanus and Amar Gupta. Tax credit financing was handled by Missing Link Films.

“$Positions” had its world premiere at SXSW earlier this year and is slated for a theatrical release in early 2026 from Dark Star Pictures.

“After spending years working on my debut feature,...

It’s not often that we cover comedies here at Nightmare on Film Street, but when we do they are comedies where laughter is the only defense you have against a full-blown panic attack. And as a Canadian citizen, laughing through full-blown panic attacks is about all I know right now (see: any news story from any news outlet covering US/Can politics). Indie comedy $Positions, which recently celebrated its World Premiere at the 2025 SXSW Film Festival, is truly one of the most stressful movies I’ve watched since Uncut Gems. What starts out as a cringy crypto blunder takes a nosedive straight into the danger zone as a naive investor find himself in a blender of bankruptcy, bookies, dead bodies, and criminally insane drug addicts.

Written and directed by Brandon Daley, $Positions stars Michael Kunicki as Mike, a struggling crypto investor down on his luck, in over his head,...

In June 2023, a very specific list of films was added to Letterboxd, titled, "oh this guy is so f*cked. there’s absolutely no way he can get more f*cked. (the next scene happens) ohhhh my god." Movies like After Hours, Fargo, and Uncut Gems fill said gag list, and writer-director Brandon Daley's new "twitchy, hyper-contemporary comedy" $Positions would fit right in with the anxiety-inducing bunch.

Premiering at SXSW 2025, Daley's debut feature film follows the trials and tribulations of protagonist Mike Alvarado (Michael Kunicki), a blue-collar Midwesterner who may or may not have a cryptocurrency trading addiction. Spoiler: he totally does. The film begins with Mike in a trance, staring at his phone screen and watching his money deplete in real time on some crypto app featuring a menacing monkey. As Mike snaps out of his hypnotic state — while driving, mind you — the audience meets his passenger,...

"We're all wolves... All just circling & snarling & snapping at each other." Cranked Up Films has debuted the official trailer for an indie horror film titled Wolves Against the World, the second in a genre trilogy from filmmaker Quinn Armstrong. This one is about a group of neo-Nazi metalheads who can't harness the beasts inside them. Part of the new horror trilogy called Fresh Hell - "shooting films on a small budget back-to-back, each film with its own unique aesthetic and cleverly interconnected elements between them. Each film is shot with great creativity and killer practical effects by industry legend Dave Greathouse." Wolves Against the World features Michael Kunicki, Jordan Mullins, Jacob Southwick, with Quinn Armstrong. The first in the new trilogy is The Exorcism of Saint Patrick, and this is the second one - opening just a week later in September this year. Check it out. // Continue Reading ›...