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Bobby Cooper is having a bad day. In fact, Bobby Cooper is having a very bad day. Stuck in a small Arizona town in the desert when his car breaks down, he begins to meet the townspeople. And that's when the fun begins. It starts with Darrell, the mechanic who's working on his car. The mechanic from hell. Come to think of it, most of the townspeople were from hell. And like Dante, everything Bobby does sends him to a deeper section of hell. I found myself saying 'You gotta be kidding me!' every five minutes. Nothing is what it seems. Even when you think you've figured it out, it still catches you off-guard in places. It's somewhat similar to Red Rock in that way. The movie spoofs the whole neo-noir genre and it even winks at itself. This is Oliver Stone at his best. I still can't think about this movie without grinning. As weird as they were, the characters were believable. Over-the-top, but believable. This is the quintessential black comedy. And the most hilarious.

If you can get past the language, rent this one. It's a winner.

Sometimes it seems that all the intelligent story-telling in film today is done by independents and short films, and that's certainly true of this short.

This is an unusually well-done character study, centered on Chinese-American businessman Michael Lin (Ben Wang), an out-of-towner visiting New York along with several other members of his company for a diversity meeting before going out for dinner as a group. As the only Asian at the meeting, he feels isolated at first, but he perks up when Anne Weisman (Sam Tsao), a Jewish Chinese-American attorney for the company arrives late for the meeting. But she immediately makes it clear that she has a different agenda, and she does not identify with him or her Asian heritage. After several attempts by him to engage her in friendly conversation, she rudely brushes him off and pointedly ignores him when they go to the bar.

Michael proceeds to get very drunk, and begins to behave boorishly. He eventually storms out of the bar, and while walking around the complex, strips his shirt off in mid-winter and in his drunken rage, enacts vestiges of his Chinese heritage.

I don't want to spoil the ending by giving it away, but it's surprising and sad. This short is well worth watching.

Lili Taylor is spectacular in what is essentially a one-woman show about Darcy Winningham, the brown-nosing, office drama queen who doesn't do much of anything, but who's very good at looking busy while gabbing on the phone. She chats away all morning, making and receiving calls, but her best friend, who works in another department in the same office, isn't answering.

It's sort of a comedy, but a very black comedy. As the morning wears on, the bosses keep walking by Darcy's desk. Darcy senses that something is afoot, but she's not sure what. Then she learns that one of her friends was fired, and she has to prepare her friend's presentation for a meeting on very short notice. You can see the panic rise as the ground slowly melts beneath her. Is the company making some wholesale changes? Is Darcy about to be fired? Did her best friend also get fired? But if that's the case, then why hasn't anyone seen her and why isn't she answering her home phone? Did something sinister happen to her friend?

Exceptionally well-done short.