Bird in Hand
2022 · 13m · USA
Directed by Nick Beardslee
Genres: drama, mystery, romance
Tones: sensual, theatrical, whimsical
A compulsive thief steals a brass bird figurine during an intimate encounter, then meets Riley at a party where their charged chemistry raises the question of whether his interest is genuine attraction or simply treating Riley as his next mark.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Queer-as-furniture mystery-romance from a one-man-band who shot, scored, and edited it himself. Refreshing to see queerness deployed as setting rather than thesis statement, and the brass-bird MacGuffin has a 1940s noir cheekiness I'll take.
Beardslee's refusal to make queerness the subject — instead foregrounding genre mechanics of mystery and romance — is the right instinct, and writing/shooting/scoring solo is the auteurist position. The Vimeo cosigns suggest the surprises land.
Beardslee wrote, shot, edited, AND scored the entire 13-minute film himself, and the choice to treat queerness as unremarkable in order to foreground genre mechanics is a craft argument I respect — it's not the message, it's the chassis. Lean, authored work.
Reviews
Structurally perfect as a New Yorker Magazine short story—sophisticated and satisfyingly self-contained.
A tense will-he-or-won't-he romantic drama adorned with modest mystery elements—a real delight in 13 minutes.
Festivals
- NewFest: The New York LGBTQ+ Film Festival 2022