They Fly By Night
33m · USA
Directed by Ross Kolton, Bill Tangradi
Genres: crime, dark comedy, drama
Tones: darkly comic, humorous, tense
A debt-ridden young man arrives at a desert Airbnb expecting easy money from an eccentric junk picker, only to get tangled in a homespun criminal scheme. Vintage goods, morally justified crime, and a fully-fleshed-out lowlife economy.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A crime comedy that smells like sunbaked vinyl seats and bad decisions. I love that nobody here is trying to be a kingpin — they're just trying to flip junk and survive, which feels infinitely more honest than another heist movie.
Bottle Rocket meets a Craigslist desert handoff is a vivid proposition, and a fully-fleshed lowlife economy is the connective tissue most crime shorts skip. Solid hook.
At 33 minutes, the fully-realized economy of vintage junk picking and desert-Airbnb handoffs is the kind of homespun world-building most crime shorts skip. The morally-justified-criminal-behavior framing has personality.
Reviews
A homespun crime comedy set in a fully fleshed-out world of vintage goods buying/selling, and (morally justified) criminal behavior.