Pam
2022 · 15m · USA
Directed by Luke Harris
Genres: coming-of-age, drama
A lonely, overweight 16-year-old girl struggling with her self-image falls under the influence of a personal trainer whose intentions turn out to be far from benign. The film centers on her bond with her mother and the question of what self-improvement really means.
Picked by Zoe
The scouts
Everyone expects the transformation arc, the triumphant before-and-after—so Harris just... doesn't give it to you, pivots instead to maternal love and self-acceptance, which should feel preachy but somehow doesn't, because the film's actually interested in the ugliness of grooming rather than redemption.
A formally restrained chamber piece that positions itself thoughtfully against the weight-loss-narrative tradition, with careful editing that allows silence and the mother-daughter dynamic to carry the emotional weight that lesser films would telegraph through score.
The entire film hinges on the casting and performance choice—a teenager who reads as genuinely unglamorous and conflicted rather than conventionally vulnerable, which makes the trainer's predation register as actual danger instead of melodrama, and costs nothing but pays everything.
Reviews
A masterpiece of expressing confidence in being yourself while making an effort to be better, instead of wanting to 'change' yourself to become somebody else.
A kind of short film I will remember in this chaotic era.