Pinpoint
2025 · 16m · USA
Directed by Michael Merlino
Genres: drama, horror, thriller
Tones: dark, provocative, tense
A med student spirals into obsessive fixation with anatomy while his classmates numb themselves with opioids — a system that rewards breakdown and punishes integrity.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Academia-as-opioid-crisis told through a med student who can't tell the difference between dissecting a cadaver and dissecting himself — the 200-track sound design alone is a reason to watch.
Michael Merlino cast himself as lead and built sound design from nearly 200 separate tracks — Whiplash-meets-Requiem-adjacent intensity, where the craft commitment shows on screen even when the med-school-horror tropes are familiar.
The director recorded nearly 200 separate audio tracks for the sound design — that's an obsessive technical commitment that matches the film's content about med-school fixation. Casting himself adds another layer of identification or vanity, depending.
Festivals
- Chicago International Film Festival 2024