Follow Me Wherever I Go
2025 · 13m · USA
Directed by Max DeFalco
Genres: dark comedy, drama
Tones: dark, darkly comic, provocative, tense
A deeply religious single mother is determined to start her life anew and will stop at nothing until she gets what she wants: her son's best friend. A darkly comic parable on the will to power, embodied in the unlikely figure of a midwest church lady.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Religious midwest single mother who will stop at nothing to claim her son's best friend. Killing of a Sacred Deer comp is a real gauntlet to throw — if it earns half of that, very interesting.
DeFalco names The Killing of a Sacred Deer as his touchstone and the Palm Springs ShortFest placement is meaningful — the unsympathetic-protagonist commitment is what I want from young filmmakers reaching for Lanthimos. A serious attempt.
Palm Springs Shortfest selection, Short of the Week feature, 8.1K views — the dark-religious-mother-as-predator structure tips toward Killing-of-a-Sacred-Deer territory. The festival placement says DeFalco walked the line; the page can't verify the actual tonal control yet.
Reviews
A portrait of characters in extremis that emphatically passed the test of being something I'd share unprompted with people in real life.
DeFalco has crafted a classically American story — a parable on the will to power, embodied in the unlikely figure of a midwest church lady.
Festivals
- Palm Springs International ShortFest 2025
- Beyond Fest 2025
- Encounters Film Festival 2025
- CAA Moebius Film Festival 2025