Life Event
2016 · 9m · United States
Directed by R. Michael Thomas
Genres: comedy, coming-of-age, drama
Tones: contemplative, darkly comic, humorous
Murph is turning 30 and realizes being a real adult is harder than it looks - so he decides to turn the day, and his life around, in one fell swoop.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
The premise is basically every coming-of-age comedy ever—guy hits 30, life crisis, redemption arc—so either Thomas finds a genuinely perverse angle in here or this is exactly the kind of consensus comfort food I'd usually pass on without thinking.
The tonal collage of humorous, contemplative, and darkly comic suggests Thomas is working in a lineage of indie comedy-dramas that blur genre, though without seeing the film's formal choices, it's unclear whether this lands as considered craft or tonal confusion.
A nine-minute coming-of-age comedy hinges entirely on whether Thomas has found that one behavioral or structural choice that makes a 30-year-old's reckoning feel *necessary* rather than inevitable—the kind of decision that transforms a familiar setup into something earned.
Festivals
- Issa Rae Presents: Short Film Sundays 2016, Featured Selection