Lullaby
2024 · 15m · USA
Directed by Alina Lee, Michael Reisinger
Genres: coming-of-age, drama
Tones: contemplative, melancholic, tender
Ana, an 18-year-old, tries to outrun the reality of her mother's terminal illness through an ordinary day at the beach that spirals into a chaotic local party, forcing her to face the slow tragedy waiting at home.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Everyone expects the grief film to live in the hospital room, so Lee and Reisinger flip it—letting anticipatory dread seep through neon-soaked party chaos instead of maudlin close-ups. It's a genuinely weird choice that could've felt exploitative, but it lands.
The film understands itself as part of a lineage stretching from *The Last Picture Show* through mumblecore—the party as a pressure cooker where emotional stakes get refracted through noise and bodies rather than dialogue. Formally disciplined work in a tradition it respects.
The genius move is letting the sensory overload of the beach day do the emotional work: the sound design lets joy and dread occupy the same space, and a single moment where Ana checks her phone pulls the entire film's weight into frame without a word.