What You Left in the Ditch
2024 · 18m · USA
Directed by Tucker Bliss
Tones: absurdist, darkly comic, surreal, tender
A woman struggles with her lack of attraction to her husband after he returns from a future war missing his lips, leading her into a guilt-ridden flirtation with a young grocery store bag boy. Based on Aimee Bender's short story of the same name.
Picked by Margot
The scouts
Husband returns from future war without lips, wife flirts with bag boy — Aimee Bender source means the surrealism has bones. The Lobster comp is overused but here it might actually fit.
Bliss adapts Aimee Bender, which is the right literary register for the lipless-husband-returns-from-war conceit; Lobster-comparisons are inevitable but warranted. The Bender source alone earns my attention.
17:46 adapted from Aimee Bender, with 36.4K views and 267 likes — Bender's surrealist short fiction (a husband returning from war without lips) lives or dies on tonal precision, so trusting an adaptation hinges on the lead performance keeping the absurdity grounded. Grace Rex anchoring suggests it does.
Reviews
Despite weighty themes like war, PTSD, and infidelity, the film keeps a surprisingly light and at times playful tone, with that balance making the emotional moments hit even harder, especially the gentle, affecting final scene.
A twistedly tender tale of love, guilt, and inconvenient desire that uses biting humor and emotional nuance to hold up a mirror to the things we dare not say out loud.
Festivals
- Cleveland International Film Festival 2024
- Boston Film Festival 2024
- New Hampshire Film Festival 2024
- Indie Short Fest 2024, Best Indie Short
- Los Angeles International Short Film Festival 2024, Best Short of the Season (Special Jury Award)