Tiki Bar Funeral Home
2023 · 14m · United States
Directed by Amy DePaola
Genres: comedy, dark comedy
Tones: absurdist, darkly comic, humorous
A failing actress returns to her hometown after twelve years to attend her ex-boyfriend's tiki-themed funeral, where she plans to confess her love to his best friend — only to discover her ex is still alive, foiling the plan and forcing her to face her own regrets.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
A dead man shows up alive at his own funeral and somehow that's not even the weirdest thing happening—the real rug-pull is watching a failed actress weaponize her own regret as a love confession device, which is exactly the kind of tonal whiplash that makes you question what you're actually watching.
DePaola constructs a precise darkly comic architecture where the absurdist setup (tiki funeral, fake death) becomes the formal container for genuine emotional reckoning, each beat calibrated to collapse the distance between farce and pathos in ways that reward close attention.
The film pivots entirely on one decision—keeping the ex functionally invisible until the reveal—which transforms what could've been a standard romantic comedy mess into something genuinely unsettling about self-delusion, and that economy of restraint is what makes the whole thing sing.
Festivals
- Dances With Films 2023
- No Coast Film Festival 2023
- The Broad Humor Film Festival 2023
- Highland Park Independent Film Festival 2023
- SModcastle Film Festival 2023
- Ha Ha Harvest Comedy and Film Festival 2023, Best of Festival
- Culver City Film Festival 2023
- Poppy Jasper International Film Festival 2024