If attendees of this year’s deadCenter Film Festival want some truly out-there entertainment, they need look no further than the collection of seven short films curated under the title “dc After Dark Shorts” — “it’s not porno or anything,” the host of Thursday night’s screening assured the small but “here for it” audience, though each film presented under this banner definitely isn’t for the kids (or the pearl-clutching ilk, for that matter).
After Dark begins its journey into the offbeat with M.A.M.O.N (Monitor Against Mexicans Over Nationwide). According to the Urban Dictionary, mamón is a Mexican slang word meaning “insolent little douchebag,” “absurd fuckhead,” or “deliberately, and often arrogantly, uncooperative”—a fitting title given the film’s subject matter, which details the violent exploits of a Mecha-Trump reining terror just south of the U.S.-Mexico border. Those who support the POTUS will not be amused, especially when it comes to the twist ending.
Following the punk rock madness of M.A.M.O.N., we watch a college boy pause a slasher movie and masturbate to a fuzzy VHS image of a bosomy, blood-slathered woman in peril, and thus the tongue-in-cheek horror comedy Netflix & Chill begins. There’s a coitus-interruptus in the form of the titular proposition, sent to him via text by a blonde co-ed who just might have ulterior motives behind this Millennial seduction technique (note the blanket patterned after the hideously ominous carpeting in The Shining for a clue as to where this narrative ultimately goes).
Gridlock comes next, a taut thriller examining the ease with which humans slip into paranoia and other more “animalistic” behaviors, a subject well-covered in this genre, but given a jolt of originality here. The turns of this narrative seem obvious in retrospect, but they are quite surprising upon first viewing, the hallmark of expert storytelling. Definitely watch for more from writer Darach McGarrigle and director Ian Hunt Duffy.
Hashtag Perfect Life explores the dichotomy of reality and fiction as it relates to the media, both in the context of television and radio as well as the social variety (Instagram, especially). The TV talk show host Todd Gacc (played by Todd Behrend, the character’s name possibly a reference to Seinfeld) bears one of the creepiest smiles ever to grace the big screen. Erin Lovelace delivers a solid, nuanced performance as Maddie Applegate, the complicated victim of online shaming and a mad pooper. Most of the film consists of tight close-ups of these two leads, just sitting, just talking, but the actors (combined with the dialogue and an unnerving score) heighten the cinematic simplicity to magnificent levels.
The collection’s lone animated short, Winston, appears next, a manic and hauntingly beautiful experience conjuring simultaneously the literary spirit of Edgar Allan Poe and the filmic zest of Darren Aronofsky. Writer and director Aram Sarkisian thrusts the audience into the deteriorating mind of his titular protagonist, and we have no choice but to grip tight to the fraying strands of sanity until the chilling end.
Following Winston, we shift gears into the awkwardly comedic Smother Me in Hugs, about a lonely, overeating parking lot attendant who receives anonymous dirty phone calls from a woman whose horniness is so over-the-top its cringe-worthy rather than sexy (by his own account, a similar encounter happened in real life to filmmaker Eric Schuman, eliciting much tittering from Thursday’s crowd). When our hapless protagonist agrees to meet his over-the-phone admirer, he gets a surprise (as does the audience) that might even make Todd Solondz squirm.
Wrapping up After Dark, a real treat (pun intended, the first of many): Lunch Ladies, a deliciously grotesque film about two Johnny Depp-obsessed high school cafeteria workers played to perfection by Donna Pieroni and Mary Manofsky. These gals cook up a devious plan to secure their in-jeopardy jobs long enough to buy plain tickets out to L.A., where they’ve been invited by “the Depper” himself to work as his personal chefs. Screenwriter Clarissa Jacobson, in attendance at Thursday’s screening, described the film as Sweeney Todd by way of John Waters, an apt description for this pitch black (and pitch-perfect) gross-out comedy.
If any deadCenter attendees missed Thursday’s showing of dC After Dark, fear not! There’s an encore screening Saturday, June 9th at 7:15 PM in the Stella Nova Theater at Harkins Bricktown Cinema. It’s rare to see a short film collection so expertly curated, to the point one feels the presentation is a single feature film, rather than a series of unrelated works from filmmakers around the world, so don’t miss it while it’s here.
