Up and Coming
2023 · 10m · USA
Directed by Taryn Segal
Tones: absurdist, darkly comic, humorous
An actress sweats through rehearsals for a gruesome kill scene with an eccentric director who keeps moving the goalposts. A handheld satire of the indignities actors swallow to call themselves working.
Picked by Felix
The scouts
Every working actor has been in this room and knows the smell. Segal turns career humiliation into a comedy of survival.
A handheld satire of indie auteur theater from inside the actor's panic is a sturdy comedic premise that the Rehearsal comp suggests Segal handles with the right tonal precision. Familiar terrain but worked from the right angle.
Handheld backstage actor satire from the inside of an audition panic — Segal both writing it and being the one lying on the floor for the kill scene is the kind of vulnerability the joke needs. Conference-room-as-set is a real choice.
Reviews
an accessible and comedic commentary that remains grounded in reality while forefronting charismatic performances of its small ensemble