Cherry-Colored Funk
2025 · 16m · Array
Directed by Chelsie Pennello
Genres: comedy, drama, musical
Tones: absurdist, humorous, tender, tense
A serial grifter faces the music when seemingly everyone he's ever wronged shows up on the opening day of his dubious Italian ice and gelato business. All of his shady deals, disastrous business relationships, and personal betrayals come to a head in what feels like real time, as his house of cards collapses around him.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Conman's reckoning playing out real-time in a cramped gelato shop with a genre-hopping score nodding to Infinite Jest's Madame Psychosis — Uncut Gems comparison is brave, and the YouTube link is dead so I'm reviewing pure synopsis. The ambition is real even if I can't verify it.
A serial grifter's reckoning in real time inside a gelato shop, scored by an EDM-Morricone-funk-noise hybrid with a Madame Psychosis-from-Infinite Jest DJ — the Uncut Gems and The Bear comparisons are well chosen. The unavailable YouTube link is a critical vault concern.
A genre-hopping score (EDM, Morricone-style orchestration, western, funk, experimental noise) on a single-location gelato-shop reckoning, with a character pulled from Infinite Jest's Madame Psychosis — that's a specific writer-musician vision. Page shows the video is unavailable now, which makes me cautious on confirmation.
Reviews
Cherry-Colored Funk is the 'Uncut Gems' of the Gelati World — taut, whirling chaos with an enigmatic serial conman at the center, finding tension and comedy in the absurd while never forgetting what connects us all.
A pacy, stylish, single-location comedy with ever-increasing angst, anchored by Michael Tow's brilliant performance.
Cherry-Colored Funk is a wild ride with a few laughs and an unexpectedly touching ending.
Controlled chaos orchestrated within minimal spatial constraints — Pennello keeps cameras right in the face of the action.
Punchy visuals, brooding themes and a surreal soundtrack.
Festivals
- Tribeca Festival 2025
- New Hampshire Film Festival 2025, Best Short Comedy
- FilmFest DC 2025, Best Local Short
- Boise Film Festival 2025, Best Director
- Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival (PAAFF) 2025, Grand Jury Award for Best Narrative Short
- Wyoming Film Festival 2025, Best Actor in a Short Film (Michael Tow)
- Indy Shorts Film Festival 2025
- New Orleans Film Festival 2025
- Chattanooga Film Festival 2025
- Oak Cliff Film Festival 2025
- deadCenter Film Festival 2025
- HollyShorts Film Festival 2025