All Good Things
2019 · 13m · Australia
Directed by Simon Croker
Genres: coming-of-age, drama, LGBTQ+
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, tender
On a road trip toward their pre-planned breakup, a young queer couple — Isaac and Levi — make stops along the way as Isaac quietly realizes he isn't ready for his first romance to end.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Everyone expects the breakup-road-trip to detonate into screaming matches and recriminations, but Croker just... lets it breathe into silence instead—which is somehow more subversive than any narrative swerve could be.
The film's restraint recalls the measured emotional architecture of Gus Van Sant's quieter work, where the absence of confrontation becomes a formal statement about how queer intimacy can end without spectacle.
The genius move is making the accumulation of small moments—a gas station, a shared meal, a glance—do all the heavy lifting that dialogue won't; the film trusts its actors' faces and the space between them so completely that you feel the goodbye in what's never said.
Reviews
A touching 13 minutes, sensitively portrayed.
Tender and endearing — a short about a couple who need to separate due to geographic distance.
Festivals
- Sydney Mardi Gras Film Festival 2020, Emerging Filmmaker Award
- Iris Prize Film Festival 2020
- Flickerfest 2020
- Melbourne Queer Film Festival 2020
- Chicago Reeling Film Festival 2019
- Australian Directors' Guild Awards 2020, Nominated — Best Direction in a Short Film