40 Minutes Over Maui
2019 · 14m · USA
Directed by Michael Feld, Josh Covitt
Tones: darkly comic, tender
On vacation in Hawaii during the January 2018 ballistic missile false alarm, a bickering middle-aged couple believes they have 40 minutes left to live and uses the window to confront the unfinished business of their marriage.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Everyone else sees a gimmick—real event, ticking clock, couple therapy—but Feld and Covitt are actually doing something weirder: they're using the false alarm as a pressure release valve that *doesn't* solve anything, which is far more subversive than the premise suggests.
A formally disciplined piece that understands its own constraint: the 40-minute window becomes a three-act structure in miniature, echoing the marriage counseling drama tradition while grounding it in a specific historical moment that gives it weight rather than novelty.
The entire film hinges on the moment they *don't* stay changed after the all-clear—that choice, that refusal to let the crisis rewrite their ending, is what transforms a clever premise into something genuinely about how people actually live.
Reviews
Covitt and Feld's script achieves an honest and realistic, yet hilarious interpretation of a calming panic.
Brister and Meeks master the execution with compelling delivery, moving effortlessly between nagging each other and expressing unconditional love.
Festivals
- Tribeca Film Festival 2019
- Dam Short Film Festival 2019, Best of the Fest
- Calgary International Film Festival 2019