Our Happy Place (U.S., 2024)
Synopsis: Raya wakes in the forest, cold and confused, with no memory of how she got there. Each day, it happens again. As hauntings intensify, Raya must confront a horrifying truth that shatters everything she had believed.
Paul Bickel’s feature film directorial debut is a stirring fear-fare outing that combines psychological, supernatural, and missing time horror. The result is a slow burner that chronicles its protagonist’s grappling with increasingly maddening circumstances and her reaction to a shocking revelation.
Raya (Raya Miles) is faced with a new way of life when she becomes the caretaker to her husband Paul (Bickel, who also wrote the screenplay, served as director of photography, and wore other behind-the-camera hats), who has become bedridden and barely responsive. She begins waking up in different areas around their remote cabin home, not knowing how or when she got there. As her psychological state deteriorates, supernatural occurrences begin to take place, leaving her desperate. I’ll leave the plot there so as to avoid spoilers, but suffice it to say that the answers she finds are highly unpleasant, life-changing ones.
Miles is highly impressive in her feature film debut, nailing everything asked of her character and her anguished, confused, and various other states. Though mute and mostly motionless in character Paul’s bedridden state, Bickel gets to stretch his acting chops in flashbacks, some of which show the couple in happier times. He does a solid job in his supporting role.
Bickel builds an air of mystery throughout the first two acts as Raya goes through her predicaments. Viewers who are not fond of dream sequences in their horror fare, hang in there, for once Bickel starts dropping more breadcrumbs, those sequences become increasingly important.
I had some unanswered questions after watching Our Happy Place, but none so bothersome that they detracted from my overall enjoyment of the film. If you are in the mood for some true independent fare that is well written, acted, shot, and directed, Our Happy Place is well worth a watch.
You can check out the Our Happy Place trailer here.
The Coder (U.S., 2024)
Synopsis: Mary’s crypto startup and mental health are spiraling. A flood of emails reported the app losing customers’ money, her thoughts keep fracturing, and her CEO, Thad, seems ready to drive them all off a cliff. Time is running out for Mary to rally her team and avert catastrophe — or risk more than just her company collapsing.
I may not know all of the technical (at least to me) crypto particulars that writer/director Will Crouse’s short film The Coder entails, but I know enough about work stress in offices to understand the harsh realities on which this nifty suspenser riffs. Protagonist Mary (Abbey Toot) has pulled an all-nighter after promising boss from hell Thad (Mickey O’Sullivan) that she will get code ready to launch before important visitors arrive. When things go horribly awry, she and her workmates — including Ellis (Sean Kazarian) and Aaron (Yuchi Chiu) — try desperately to right the ship, but Mary’s fragile psychological state is headed into deadly territory. The Coder boasts fine acting including Toot’s standout performance as the titular beleaguered employee, and Crouse keeps the proceedings moving at a fittingly frantic pace, delivering a dandy of a thriller short.
You can check out the trailer for The Coder here.
Our Happy Place and The Coder screen as part of Dances with Films, which runs December 5–8, 2024, in New York City.
