Notice Me
2022 · 9m · USA
Directed by Kurt Andrew Schneider
Genres: dark comedy, drama
Tones: darkly comic, melancholic, tender
Becky, an aspiring content creator whose life revolves around her phone, endures an awkward dinner with her father. When she finally looks up from her screen, her world changes forever — revealing the emotional cost of digital obsession on real human connection.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Phone-addicted girl looks up, world changes — every screen-addiction short ends in the same place. The 35mm-versus-digital contrast is cute production-side trivia, not a film.
Shooting a phone-addiction story on 35mm is the kind of analog-digital tension that makes form do thematic work — a smaller gesture in a crowded genre but a considered one. The final-scene-reframing promise needs to be earned.
Nine minutes shot on 35mm despite the subject being phone/social-media addiction — that deliberate analog-versus-digital tension is a load-bearing craft decision rather than a flex. Palm Springs and Short of the Week selection suggests the final-scene reframe genuinely lands.
Reviews
At first she comes off as a cliche, but that last scene is really what makes her complex. Schneider avoids gimmicks we've all seen before — the film subverts expectations and is surprisingly deeper than it seems.
Angela Wong Carbone delivers a layered and compelling performance that truly captures the nuances. The cinematography, sound design, and editing work together to trap you in Becky's tunnel vision.
Festivals
- Palm Springs International ShortFest 2022