CHRYSALIS
2023 · 3m
Directed by Rita Chen
Tones: melancholic, tender, whimsical
Frustrated by a sudden cold spell, two butterfly hunters make the best of a failed expedition after years of growing apart.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
On paper, 'two butterfly hunters disappointed by weather' sounds like the most aggressively mid premise possible—and Chen somehow leans into that flatness as comedy, which is either brilliant or a waste of three minutes, and I genuinely can't decide which.
Chen demonstrates formal restraint in how she lets the failed expedition become a container for reconnection; the film knows exactly where to place its emotional beats within the comedy, suggesting a filmmaker aware of how Rohmer and others have mined quiet disappointment for grace.
The entire film turns on one choice—letting the camera sit on their faces as they pivot from frustration to complicity—and that decision to honor the stillness rather than cut away is what transforms a premise about weather into something genuinely tender about proximity.