PARK CITY – To suggest that director Jack Bergert and co-screenwriter Dani Goffstein are playing with fire with the first act of their feature film debuts is an understatement of massive proportions. We haven’t walked out of a movie at a major film festival since before the pandemic, but if we weren’t assigned to review “Little Death” we might have. And even knowing we were reviewing it; the thought crossed our mind. A number of times. But this 2024 Sundance Film Festival world premiere had a surprise in store (actually, it has too many surprises). It turns out this endeavor is a manic mix of two different movies in one and the second barely redeems it enough to make you stick around for the end credits.
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We first meet the central figure of the first portion of the film, screenwriter Martin Solomon (David Schwimmer), during a dinner with his annoying wife Jessica (Jena Malone) and his obnoxious industry colleagues. Bergert and Goffstein waste no time demonstrating their disdain for Hollywood and almost want to beat your head with a hammer over it. They even convinced Seth Green to play a writer friend of Martin’s railing against the current “woke” nature of the industry. Saying the quiet part out loud, I guess, huh? Groundbreaking.
It turns out Martin has been working on a broad NBC sitcom titled “The Switch” (about a husband and wife who switch bodies) but is this close to having his first film, a dream autobiographical project, fully funded. When the producers tell him the financier wants him to change the main character to a woman he’s flabbergasted. But as they quickly explain, no one wants to see a movie about a white guy anymore. They want to see movies about the underrepresented and disadvantaged. Already stressed over his own existence and on more prescription drugs than you thought possible, this takes Martin to another level and he begins to see himself as a woman (played by Gaby Hoffman).
Now, if this was the direction the rest of “Little Death” was heading, it would at least be more intriguing than what came before it. Unfortunately, Hoffman’s switch doesn’t last long enough, and the movie reverts to Schwimmer, a mix of over-the-top, stereotypical Hollywood caricatures and AI-generated imagery and animation. Wait, did we forget about that part? A nod toward the end of the movie makes it clear the A.I. stuff is included as a metaphor for how shallow Martin’s world is, but Bergert’s fixation on it is so grating, so overused that it makes following what is happening on screen feel like nails on a chalkboard. Yeah, we get what it represents, but it’s such a glaringly obvious choice.
A reminder, we would have walked out at this point if we could have.
After Martin randomly meets the mysterious woman who has been haunting his dreams (Angela Sarafyan, as much a breath of fresh air as Hoffman), he makes the dramatic decision to break up with Jessica (who rightly reads him for filth for it). Back home, he discovers burglars have crashed his place and attempts to hide from them. What happens next would be more shocking if the tone of the movie had been decidedly different up until that point. But, alas, no.
At this point, “Little Death” takes a sharp, sharp turn. No more narration. No more A.I. animation. No more shrill, cliche characters. It’s now effectively, a completely different movie. The focus has shifted to AJ (Dominic Fike) and Karla (Talia Ryder), two friends who made the mistake of agreeing to drive the getaway car for the two burglars who hit up Martin’s home. As they leave the premises, the criminals end up stealing Karla’s car, and both their phones and wallets. We’re now in the middle of an (almost) 24-hour storyline where the pair are racing to get her car back which contains the marketing materials AJ needs for a pitch breakfast the next morning. AJ is a dreamer and simply can’t let this opportunity pass.
Their night-long adventure finds them interacting with a diverse and (mostly) more grounded set of characters than Martin’s world could ever fathom. Sure, there is a “Pulp Fiction” inspired visit to a drug dealer’s apartment (an entertaining Karl Glusman), but it’s mostly populated by their fellow twentysomething friends who are just trying to get through this thing we call life. And maybe enjoying a house party and a 4 AM breakfast at Canter’s along the way.
There are few connections to Martin’s storyline outside of the fact they rescued his chihuahua (did we forget to mention that?), but like our initial protagonist, they are also functioning addicts. Not to the pharmaceuticals dominating Martin’s life, but the hard stuff. It’s a plot element almost skirted over until it’s not. Again, the tone has decidedly shifted.
Now anyone who makes it to the end of “Little Death” knows Bergert should count his lucky stars he has Fike and Ryder on hand to make sure the second half works as well as it does. The narrative isn’t that original (whatsoever), but the actor’s charismatic and gutsy performances elevate the material to make the proceedings at least somewhat compelling. But it’s simply too little, too late. There is so much before it in the Martin section that is beyond redundant. So many unnecessary filler and plot devices that simply don’t contribute anything to the overall movie. And certainly not for a shock moment that is nowhere near as clever as Berger and Goffstein think it is.
While introducing the movie before its premiere, Bergert revealed he’d received a lot of notes before locking the picture. We’re pretty sure we’ve never heard a filmmaker volunteer that before. In fact, he said he kept getting more notes before it was finally locked. And then joked he was looking forward to the audience’s suggestions afterward. Well, you’ve got them now. Perhaps another visit to the editing room is in the cards. [C-]
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