During the 2022 Tribeca Film Festival’s June 8 to June 19 live run – and subsequent “at home” programming via streaming that extended to July 3 – many short film entries competed for awards consideration, and to draw distribution interest in general.
We at The Messenger had the privilege to preview-screen several shorts set for wide release later in 2022. The following three under 19-minute pictures [we’ve concluded] represent what [we believe] are the supreme examples of quality and staying power amongst this year’s extensive slate.
OUT OF ORDER
Somehow, this film was not a 90s Pauly Shore comedy.
Out of Order tells the tale of a 30-yearold man (Kareem Rahma) with a ticking time bomb for a digestive system – thusly captivating moviegoers who’ve been in similar situations, but aren’t as free to offer up their accounts of such at cocktail hours for reasons that go without saying.
On the hunt for a bathroom in the “dog eat dog” world of dating his way through New York City, the presumably ill-fated lead tangles with an eclectic batch of truly tristate characters on his quest. This roster includes Instagram famous “Lil’ Mo Mozzarella,” who partook in a talent show of citywide comedians ahead of the film’s June 11 premiere.
Out of Order itself is directed by another viral sensation whose underground star rose on the same platform – “New York Nico,” aka Nicolas Heller. If and when the film emerges on popular video content-based sites like YouTube and Vimeo, anticipate it drawing comparisons to work from notable locally-bred artists equally of the street-casting persuasion. Namely, The Safdie Brothers (Good Time, Uncut Gems).
Of Josh and Benny Safdie’s work, Out of Order actually most resembles their little-seen rival buskers short, Goldman v. Silverman (2020) – currently available to stream for free on YouTube – starring the latter and their Oscar-snubbed Gems lead, Adam Sandler. Speaking of “Gems,” Out of Order also features an overnight standout from that film’s third act, the iconically deep-tanned Wayne Diamond.
TRIGGERED
Produced by Colombian-American actor John Leguizamo, Tara Westwood’s political drama about two gun control-crazed home invaders would have been our No. 1 short in a different year. And, for obvious reasons, it was at the top of many reviewer’s lists during this, yet another year where stateside mass shootings have refused to go away. Seeking “eye for an eye” vengeance against a US Senator (Westwood) and her family over perceived faulty legislature that led to the deaths of their loved ones, the intruders (Caitlin Mehner, Isiah Whitlock, Jr.) are as grief-consumed as they are blindly certain their quest will pay dividends. Triggered will have everyone who sees it thinking long and hard beyond the end credits, and demanding for more than the “thoughts and prayers” the film declares are not, and have never been, enough.
SPARRING PARTNER
A cross between the “this is not a romantic comedy”-espousing 500 Days of Summer leads’ final farewell and an undocumented lunch break between early Jim and Pam, Sparring Partner reinvigorates audiences in search of a better half with this notion: they may not need to look far to find theirs.
However, things are of course nuanced and abundantly complicated – as depicted in J.J. Kandel’s impressive, Richard Linklaterian (Before trilogy) directorial debut. One of the dynamite-casted (Saturday Night Live’s Cecily Strong, KeiLyn Durrel Jones) characters in this two-hander is married, forcing the closely-bonded pair to converse in intensely transparent hypotheticals, but hypotheticals nonetheless.
Channeling more far-ranging emotion in brief screen time than someone only aware of her comedic chops would expect, Strong especially increases her chances of fielding leading lady offers the moment she decides to exit the 30 Rock stage to develop her The King of Staten Island.
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Be on the lookout for each installment of this Messenger-certified “excellence in short film” trio when they are made available to mass audiences via streaming, on digital or in theaters. And stay tuned as well for our continued coverage of the 2022 Tribeca Festival, which will conclude next week with a review of our No. 1 overall film of the event: the Yogi Berra documentary, It Ain’t Over.
