Film festivals, in my opinion, are some of the most fun you can have as a film fan. The first one I ever attended was for a single day and a single movie, Jojo Rabbit, at the Chicago International Film Festival in 2019. It was a new and fun experience that had a lot of hype around it and I’ve been hooked on film festivals ever since. I continued to attend the Chicago Film Festival in 2021, 2022, and 2023, going on weekend trips with my mother. However, over the pandemic lockdown, I attended a few virtually with online viewing, which included Seattle International Film Festival, South by Southwest, Sundance, and Milwaukee Film Festival.

I only saw two movies as part of the film festival online in 2021 and didn’t attend virtually in 2022 or 2023, either due to lack of interest in the films presented or Milwaukee Film dropping support for the virtual aspect of their festival. But in 2024, I attended in-person for the first time and it was also my first time doing a festival for more than just one week. Since I was a UWM student, I was able to catch 13 movies or short programs and it was super fun. The highlights of that festival were Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person, Chasing Chasing Amy, and the shorts Bob’s Funeral and A.D. (After Dad).

But this all now brings us to today and the 2025 Milwaukee Film Festival. Milwaukee Film has graciously given Prowl Radio a couple of press passes and I have been sent on duty to do coverage of the festival. My plan for the festival was just to see as many movies as possible within my class schedule and review them all in this article! This article will cover all movies and short film programs I attended in chronological order. There is also an interview with Toby Jones and Ben Hanson, director and producer of AJ Goes To The Dog Park respectively, later in the article.

Secret Mall Apartment

The first movie I saw as part of the festival was Secret Mall Apartment, a documentary about a group of people who decided to create a secret apartment within the Providence Place shopping mall. I ended up really enjoying this movie! It ended up being less about the secret apartment itself and more about the person who led the apartment project, Michael Townsend. Michael is a very interesting subject for the documentary, you hear lots about his various art projects and, most notably, tape art. Tape art is a non-permanent art done with masking tape, and it ended up being really beautiful hearing about how he created tape art in children’s hospitals, collaborating with the patients to do so. You get a fantastic image of who Michael Townsend is as a person and the ideas that motivate his art. My issues with the movie come in its pacing, which feels like you’re being pulled back and forth from focusing on the mall apartment to one of Townsend’s other art projects. It never allows you to fully get an idea of the mall apartment before spending 10 minutes discussing an abandoned building that he used to live in that got demolished. All of these “distractions” are genuinely interesting but it just feels very jarring to be suddenly talking about one of them after just discussing the mall apartment. It could have been improved with better transitions between topics or maybe discussing things in a more chronological order. But, the finished product still ends up being very interesting and a good time.

Verdict – 7/10

Rent Free

Rent Free is a pretty decent buddy comedy about two queer friends who try to go a whole year without paying rent. The main duo has pretty good chemistry together and whenever they’re on screen together, the movie is at its best. Ben, one of the main duo, is shamelessly a bad person throughout the runtime and honestly, the movie manages to make it work. You do kind of hate the guy at times, but you are still able to sympathize with him and the struggles he faces throughout the movie. With the movie’s concept of them staying at different places with different friends throughout the runtime, the quality of the movie naturally ends up depending on whoever the main cast is staying with. There are some excellent sections, such as when they end up staying with Ben’s family or with an extremely toxic couple, but others that overstay their welcome, such as a party house they stay at near the start of the movie. However, it overall ends up being a decent time with some pretty good laughs in there and some great character work along the way.

Verdict – 6/10

The Notorious Network: A Devilish Dish

This is the pre-feature short to the next movie I saw, AJ Goes To The Dog Park. It is definitely entertaining and has some pretty decent jokes in it. It reminds me a lot of Eddsworld and other 2000-2010s era flash animations. It has its charm, but the animation isn’t all that special and outside of a few standout jokes, the comedy doesn’t hold up for the entire runtime. Still, shout out to Sam Aria, who is a UWM alum! I will be following his work after this, for sure, as I really do think this is the early steps in what could end up being something really fantastic.

Verdict – 6/10

AJ Goes To The Dog Park

AJ Goes To The Dog Park is absolutely my favorite of the festival. The movie follows AJ as he tries to get his dog park/perfect life back by becoming the mayor via fighting, fishing, scrapping, scraping, and sapping. As my movie taste has gotten more defined through my college years, I have gotten more into DIY filmmaking (notable DIY favorites are Hundreds of Beavers and all of Joel Haver’s features), and AJ just oozes the perfect DIY movie charm. Filmed in the director’s hometown and featuring a character/person he has worked with for years for a budget the size of Clerks, the movie clearly knows the characters, sense of humor, and style it wants, and the audience just has to go along with what craziness comes with it. The humor of the movie is very absurdist and silly, leading to an end result with a chaotic mix of insane characters/backstories and some of the funniest jokes you have ever seen in a movie. The movie never stops in its pace and has an incredible joke every couple of seconds. This is one to see once it releases on a wide scale for all those who enjoy cute dogs, absurdist humor, and DIY filmmaking.

Verdict – 10/10

Shorts: The Best Damn Fucking Midnight Program Ever. Shit.

The first shorts program I saw and the last movie of my first day of the festival! The midnight shorts were a highlight of the festival last year for me and I saw those at midnight, so I decided to see the new midnight shorts program, also at midnight, which is definitely not for the weak. Midnight shorts, for those who are not in the loop, are the horror/dark comedy/weird and strange shorts of the festival. The shorts program starts off with its two best shorts, Earwax, a short about a sound engineer trying to fix his sudden deafness, and Lurk, a short about a man whose neighbor is lurking around corners in his home. Earwax is a delightfully disgusting short with fantastic sound design and some truly cringeworthy bits in it, with a climax that culminates in such a spine-chilling moment, it makes sure it will be remembered by the entire audience, opening the program incredibly. Lurk ends up being fantastic for separate reasons, notably being the only short in the program to actually scare me. It has such a genuinely unsettling atmosphere and the neighbor hiding behind corners is a genuinely frightening image. The ending of the short is so creepy and well executed that it leaves a lasting impression of fear that will stick with you for nights to come. Other good shorts RAT!, a dark comedy thriller about stan culture, and Playing God, an existential stop motion drama, were both highlights of the festival. RAT! had some really good bits in it with some good thrills alongside the comedy, while Playing God has some of the best, most masterful stop motion I have ever seen. The program, however, does have downsides to it, with two really bad shorts, Bozo Over Roses, and Kombucha!. 

Bozo Over Roses was just so slow, one note, and boring that it felt completely directionless and didn’t add anything to the program as a whole. It also felt very robotic and stale, leading to a very awkward watch. Kombucha!, similarly, was not very good. The short, which features a man who drinks a kombucha to fit in at work, ends up relying on shock value, which it failed at. There’s a section with a pretty decent practical effect, but the movie keeps cutting to black for a second during the section, not allowing the audience to fully appreciate the practical effect present. The credits also featured what I believe to be AI-generated artwork, which automatically makes the short a 0/10 to me. I’m disappointed in Milwaukee Film for letting in a short both this year and last year (Interdimensional Pizza Party was last year’s offender) that uses AI-generated art. It goes against their advertisements of supporting movies and artists, completely undermining that message by allowing movies, such as last year’s Last Night With The Devil, and shorts, such as Kombucha!, which both feature AI artwork that directly harms artists. I really hope they do not allow in movies or shorts that feature AI art next year.

Overall, the midnight shorts program had really high highs but also really low lows. I will continue going to midnight shorts programs just for those high highs, but I do hope AI is not allowed in the future.

Verdict – 6/10

Boys Go To Jupiter

Boys Go To Jupiter follows a young delivery driver trying to save up $5,000 while dealing with his friends, a corporate lab, and an alien that keeps showing up. The best words I can use to describe this movie are charming and cute. The animation is peculiar, but once you get used to it, it feels perfect for the tone of the movie. The movie is paced very well and never feels like it is ever out of things to do or show you until the end. The indie-pop songs also fit the vibe of the movie very well, creating something very unique. What might not work for some people is the awkward sense of humor, which is very reminiscent of Joe Pera’s work (who does appear in the movie himself as a mini-golf course owner). For me, though, I absolutely love the style of comedy and so it ended up working a lot for me. I honestly just kind of wish it was a little bit longer and allowed the audience to get to know some of the side characters a bit better. But as is, it’s a really great indie comedy that will definitely go on to have some diehard fans.

Verdict – 8/10

Sister Midnight

Sister Midnight was sadly the biggest disappointment of the festival for me. It follows a woman, fresh into an arranged marriage, struggling to adjust to her new life and begins experiencing a mysterious sickness. The movie advertised itself as a comedy and was in the Cinema Hooligante program, which normally features dark comedies and horror comedies that move at a quick pace. Sister Midnight is kind of the opposite. It is a dark horror comedy, but it moves at a snail’s pace, taking forever to move the plot along, and then not a lot happens when the movie actually does get going. I just mostly felt bored during it, and there just weren’t a lot of great jokes to make up for its very slow pace. I do think there are so many pieces of a great movie here, such as the general concept, the actors, and some of the side characters, but the direction just wasn’t strong and ended up holding the movie back by keeping it moving extremely slowly without any payoff to make up for that. I really wanted to like this one (it was one of the first movies I decided on going to), but ended up just being disappointed and bored by it. If you do see it, go into it with the knowledge that it is very slow paced because I do worry that maybe my expectations for it are partially to blame for my disappointment in it.

Verdict – 3/10

Four Mothers

Four Mothers is absolutely going to turn out to be a favorite for those who see it at this festival and those who don’t. It follows a gay author who gets stuck taking care of his and three of his friends’ elderly mothers while trying to promote his new book. This movie is a lovely time and an absolute crowd pleaser. It reminds me a lot of last year’s Thelma, which similarly captured the hearts of the people in the audience, and those who enjoyed Thelma will definitely love Four Mothers as well. The comedy as a whole works a lot, but my complaints lie with the fact that the characters, mostly the four mothers that the movie is named after, just do not get enough focus. The movie seems more concerned with the author and his struggle to promote the book rather than the four moms he’s with. I think that’s a pretty big mistake, as all of the actresses have moments that make them shine, but all end up feeling like just side characters rather than what the movie is named after. None truly get any strong development, and their moments to be the focus are mostly just comedy. I wish the movie explored them more as I think they are much more interesting than the book promotion plot. The only one that gets very strong development is the author’s own mom and she is incredible! Every scene with her is an absolute joy and she easily is the best (and funniest) part of the movie. I feel like the rest of the mothers could have gotten the same amount of focus as she did and that just leaves me feeling slightly disappointed by the end. But! This movie still ends up being a very sweet time that is sure to warm your heart. I expected this to win the audience award at the festival (which it ended up losing to The Librarians, which I review later in the article). I definitely recommend this one to all, it’s one movie that is definitely hard to hate and very easy to have a good time watching.

Verdict – 7/10

Seat 31: Zooey Zephyr

Seat 31, the pre-feature short to Heightened Scrutiny, is a disappointing documentary. It follows Zooey Zephyr shortly after she is removed from speaking on Senate Bill 99 in the Montana Senate. I think this is an incredible thing to make a short film about, but this short film just does not do the situation justice and fails as a documentary. This short is made just for people who have already been following this situation, not for anyone who is uninformed about the situation. The documentary opens directly with Zooey’s original comments that get her removed from the Senate but does not bother to explain the bill she is fighting against beforehand (or even later on). This is a massive misstep and basically fails the whole documentary as a documentary just based on that! A documentary should document the situation it is about, it should be in-depth, even in a short, but this just does not explore it enough to justify its existence. There are some fantastic parts of this movie, such as showing a young transgender person thanking Zooey for her work, the rallies that support Zooey, and the queer prom the short ends at, but not talking about Zooey’s struggles in the Senate enough just fails the documentary as a whole for me. I just wish more focus was put on her actual removal from the Senate. I really think this could have been a fantastic documentary exploring one of the most anti-democratic moments in recent memory, but as it does not explore the situation well enough, the short simply does not work well as a documentary.

Verdict – 4/10

Heightened Scrutiny

Heightened Scrutiny follows a transgender lawyer, Chase, as he prepares to make an oral argument in front of the Supreme Court on keeping gender affirming care accessible to minors. This is obviously a very important issue and the documentary does a somewhat good job of documenting this situation, but I’d argue it fails in ways similar to Seat 31. It is clearly made for people who already agree with its messaging but I do think it has advantages over Seat 31 in the fact it follows a lawyer actually fighting the case. That’s a great person to follow who has a lot of insight and makes for a good subject of a documentary. However, there is a lot of focus on more personal stories and I think that’s good too but it takes away from the perspective of Chase. The best of these more personal stories is Mila, a high school age transgender girl, who does public speaking in support of transgender people in her local community and at rallies.. Hearing her speak is inspiring and she is a fantastic addition to the documentary. But there are a lot of interviews that just are that, interviews, as opposed to the larger focus on Mila, where it is a more personal story that doesn’t have to do with the legal battle, but rather focuses on her speeches and her actual work rather than just an interview. I feel like the documentary should have focused more on the legal aspect rather than the personal aspect of people who aren’t Chase. I would be really interested in following what the actual arguments Chase makes are. Every day, we see transgender people’s struggles on social media, and I feel like when we have a documentary about a lawyer, we should focus on the legal aspect more than the personal aspect. We barely get to see any of Chase actually in court, and the oral argument the movie is focused on is split up over the course of the movie, rather than being one central moment. I also would like to point out that the story the movie covers is not finished! The case Chase is arguing in is United States v. Skrmetti and that case still has not been resolved. The movie felt like it was rushed out rather than waiting until the story it was following to actually be finished. The oral arguments that the movie ends with happened in December 2024, meaning there has only been 4 months between the oral arguments and its release at the Milwaukee Film Festival. I’d rather it just waited until the case was actually resolved rather than leaving the movie ending on a lack of an ending at all.

Verdict – 6/10

Fine Young Men

Fine Young Men is a pretty hard-to-watch movie. It follows an in-the-closet gay high schooler, Alf, who commits a crime to prove he is not gay to his friends. It moves at a pretty slow pace but you do get introduced to all of the characters well. The actor is great, all the technical aspects of this are great, but I still ended up not liking it due to the plot. I’ll give a spoiler warning for the rest of this section so if you do want to watch it, do not read any more of this paragraph and just skip to the next movie. The crime Alf ends up committing is raping and murderering one of his peers, and it just becomes impossible to sympathize with the character after that. The movie still follows him, and I feel expects you to still empathize with him, but it just becomes extremely difficult after what he does. The movie goes on to show him getting away with the crime, even after confessing to his family that he did it. I understand the point of this, that this does happen with rich young men and they do get away with it and go on to live successful lives. But it just isn’t a story I want to see in a movie. He suffers no consequences for what he did at the end of the movie, other than losing friends he didn’t like much in the first place. It just becomes upsetting to watch and leaves a sour taste in my mouth by the end of it.

Verdict – 4/10

AJ Goes To The Dog Park

Yup, I loved it so much I went and saw it again! I got a couple of my friends to come out and see the movie with me at its second screening, and I am glad I did! I had the opportunity after the movie to do an interview with the director/writer and producer of the movie, Toby Jones and Ben Hanson respectively. Below, you will find that interview. The picture above, by the way, is a picture I took with (left to right) production manager Hettie Gompf, director Toby Jones, and producer Ben Hanson at the incredible Downer Theatre.

“I am here with Toby Jones, director of AJ Goes To The Dog Park, and Ben Hanson, producer of AJ Goes To The Dog Park. Alright, I’ll just start with my first question. I wanna ask, this movie has been marketed for its nano-budget so I wanna ask, how much was its budget specifically?””

Toby: “The budget was very, very small. It was pulled together among all of us. Every piecemeal, every year we were shooting it. The cumulative amount was somewhere around the realm of… I would describe it as Clerks but not adjust for inflation.”

“That’s genuinely impressive! My second question is what was the production of the movie like over the course of the years and with a low budget?”

Ben: “It was a lot of getting the stars to align with many, many people’s schedules cause no one here is a professional actor or filmmaker, they were doing this out of the goodness of their hearts, and very enthusiastically I might add. But they all had families, jobs, hobbies, and so getting everyone together, especially when shooting a live action scene where there are sometimes 14 to 30 people on screen at once. It was kind of hard lining it up, so it was a lot of nights and weekends over the course of three summers between 2021 and 2023.”

“Now, I want to ask you (Toby), how was it taking on so many roles for the movie such as director, editor, and writer?”

Toby: “I mean, I guess I would describe it as necessity but also on purpose. It just started as me writing this script for fun in my spare time and then from there, yeah, of course, I will direct it. I don’t know who else would really be able to direct this kind of thing because it’s so specific. And then, when it came down to editing, I feel like the reason why I chose to edit it, aside from the fact that it would be free, is because Jim Cummings was like ‘You have to edit your own movie! You gotta edit your own movie!’ and I don’t know if I’m that strong that the director needs to edit their own movie, I think there are a lot of examples where it is better to not do it that way. But I really wanted to get my hands on the footage and I love the editing process. You’ve seen the movie so you know that the dialogue and humor kind of have a rhythmic quality to it and that’s something I like to have control over. Then also of course, I was the role of the press hat man in two scenes, which is simply a case of where, ‘Oh, these characters only pop up for one scene, me and the cinematographer will play these characters because we already called in every favor we already have and who do we have that’s already on set? Me and him.’”

“That actually transitions well into my next question. What were the influences specifically on the sense of humor of the movie?”

Toby: “The sense of humor, I would say if you trace it all the way back to highschool, it’s my friends and I making each other laugh at the school lunch table. We were this group of friends that had a million inside jokes and this incredibly insular sense of humor that we really took pleasure in and this is an extension of that 20 years later. But then beyond that, I’d say I’m often discovering things that usually when I’m making something I find something that I find to be ‘Oh, this is spiritually similar’ and I remember seeing Stella or Get A Life or Wet Hot American Summer comes to mind. Ben, do you have any other ones you want to mention?”

Ben: “Probably like the ZAZ crew, the Airplane, Naked Gun, Hot Shots! crew had some influence on the humor, the very literal, visual gags and what Toby was talking about with the verbal puns that are not only callbacks but they rhyme with each other.”

“I also want to ask what were the origins of AJ as a character and how have you worked with him in the past?”

Ben: “Yeah, AJ is a real guy. He is just my real friend named AJ and the way he is in the movie, and he is quick to say this, isn’t that different from how he is from real life. This is more exaggerated but it’s very much inspired by what I consider to be, I guess you could say, unstoppable likability and charisma that he has. When we were growing up, we met him in eighth grade and the thing about him was that he was very optimistic and any joke people would make would bounce right off of him and he’d play along with any bit of humor, so it was kind of like a “yes, and” type of attitude that his character has and we kind of built from that, I suppose.”

Super Secret Members Only Screening: Bad Shabbos

Every year as part of the film festival, Milwaukee Film puts on a super secret members only screening as part of the festival, where the movie you’re about to see is not revealed until the minute before it starts. I am a member of Milwaukee Film, so I obviously had to attend this as it is just fun to be surprised with a movie! Last year’s movie was Ryuichi Sakamoto: Opus, which ended up being one of my favorites of last year’s festival, even though most of the crowd walked out of the screening. So, this year, going with such a crowd-pleaser movie like Bad Shabbos makes complete sense. Bad Shabbos follows a Jewish family about to have dinner with one of the son’s girlfriend’s non-Jewish family when a manslaughter occurs and the family has to figure out how to deal with it before the girlfriend’s family arrives. This ended up being a pretty standard dark comedy movie that hits all of the beats you expect it to, but never really goes outside of those expectations. Everything in the movie you see coming from a mile away and when your movie is partially built on the suspense of hiding something, I want more surprises within it! The comedy also doesn’t hit as hard as it should, with that also generally being pretty predictable as well. The worst sin is the movie hitting a brick wall in its pace in the last 30 minutes, when it should be at its most chaotic. Everything just slows down and there’s no ramping up of the situation at all; the movie completely freezes. It ends up souring what could’ve been a really excellent movie even more. But, the friend I saw this with and the crowd ended up enjoying this a lot! So, I might be in the minority and it probably still is worth checking out if you like dark comedies.

Verdict – 5/10

AJ Goes To The Dog Park

Yes, I ended up seeing this a third time at the film festival because I loved it so much. The movie is an absolute joy to watch and me going to see it three times within one week should be proof enough. I cannot recommend this movie enough and I recommend it to all. That’s all, watch this movie.

Verdict – 10/10

The Librarians

The Librarians is a pretty interesting documentary about librarians fighting against book bans. This movie obviously covers a very important topic, and what I like about it is that it does so without holding back words for the most part. A lot of Heightened Scrutiny and Seat 31 avoids calling the people they are fighting against what they are: Nazis. The Librarians does not limit itself in the same way, there are multiple scenes in this calling book banners what they are and that is Nazis. It was honestly refreshing because these documentaries usually don’t go to the full level they should be at and this one does, so I ended up being pretty happy with that. It also has a lot of interesting subjects that make for a good watch. A lot of my complaints with this are the more trope-y things this documentary does. Lots of archival footage of old movies and ads that have no reason to be there, quotes from books that come off as pretentious, and really milking all the drama it can from these situations instead of focusing on the situation itself. For example, there’s a man who is the son of one of the most bigoted book banners in the region the movie focuses on, and when he is giving an impassioned speech about how important books are, the camera focuses on his bigoted mom for way too much of it! His speech was moving and powerful but focusing on the drama of his mother being there undercuts it. Overall, though, this is a great documentary that explores an important topic well.

Verdict – 7/10

Peacock

Peacock is a solid dark comedy that builds very well throughout its runtime. It follows a young man, Matthias, who pretends to be someone in your life, for example, a boyfriend to go to an event with or a son to impress your business partners. This sets up some pretty good comedic moments, my favorite being the recurring gag of a man whose wife divorced him due to advice Matthias gave her and he just keeps showing up throughout the movie, causing chaos, it’s great! The movie starts off pretty slow but seeing Matthias’ life continue to fall apart throughout the film becomes a pretty enjoyable time that leads to a well-earned and fun finale sequence. It ends with an image that will be remembered, and honestly, that’s one of the best things a movie can have! If you like other dark comedies or just movies with a weird, off vibe to them, this one is definitely for you and will definitely be a good time.

Verdict – 7/10

Shorts: Grab Bag 2025

This shorts program goes against the rest by having no consistent theme throughout the shorts and just has a bunch of drama shorts that didn’t fit elsewhere. As such, this program does end up feeling kind of unorganized as compared to the others, but it still has some solid entries in it. However, a lot of them end up not being truly great. One of the best of the bunch was Grandma Nai Who Played Favorites, which follows a young man’s grandmother’s ghost as she watches him deal with struggles in his life. Honestly, the opening couple of minutes of this are fantastic, but once it starts to focus less on the grandmother and more on the grandson, it kind of just falls apart and stops being super interesting. Grandma Nai is a fantastic character that steals every second she’s on screen, but that just leads to every moment she’s not the focus feeling pretty bland. The story of the grandson is nothing special and what could have made it special isn’t used! A lot of the other shorts feel like this, with pretty generic plots that don’t take full advantage of their premise. One Day This Kid and Unholy especially fall victim to this. Susana might have been my favorite, it follows a woman alone on vacation and what she gets up to. It’s very simple but it has good jokes and a strong character to follow, so it ends up being a good time despite its simplicity. Overall, this is probably my least favorite shorts program of this year’s lineup that I saw.

Verdict – 5/10

Shorts: Surprise, Surprise

The Surprise, Surprise shorts program contains lots of comedy shorts and other films that will just generally surprise you with their quality and as such, it ended up being really fantastic! I remember last year I was pretty underwhelmed with this program, but this year, it ended up being one of my favorite things I saw at the entire festival. It starts off with its weakest entry but once you’re past that, it just becomes banger after nonstop banger. Shut Up, Jack is an incredible cringe comedy piece about saying stupid shit in public that gives I Think You Should Leave Vibes. The Singers is a good drama that features some pretty great singing. But then, you hit the best short of the whole festival, in my opinion, Out For Delivery. It follows a young woman about to commit an assisted suicide after her sickness gets too bad for her to recover, but the pill to die gets lost in delivery. This leads to just some incredible dark comedy from a religious neighbor and from Martin Starr, as the person who is supposed to pick up her corpse. The comedy is on point, the dealing with death is done incredibly, and the performances are all excellent, plus it ends with a Jeff Rosenstock song, which is always a plus, as he is my favorite musician of all time. This short is perfect and it brings this entire program up a point. After it is the second best, another film that deals with death in an incredible way, The Sentry. It follows the ghost of a spy movie bad guy’s henchman as he haunts the spy that killed him and forces that spy to help his family out, which might just be the best concept of any shorts in the festival. Just like Out For Delivery, it has great comedy to go alongside its commentary on death, making for an incredibly memorable short film. ILY, Bye is the last short of the program and it deals with the anxiety of leaving an embarrassing voicemail very well, while having one of the best performances of the entire festival. Very funny stuff in that one as well! Overall, this shorts program shines above the other two I saw and it is very much worth watching all of the shorts within it.

Verdict – 9/10

Conclusion

Overall, this festival was incredible! It had so many great films and lots of fun shorts, even among the weaker of the bunch. The experience as a whole was super fun and I will definitely be attending again in the future. If you’re in the Milwaukee area, I fully recommend you go as well. It’s a great time and it’s awesome to see a bunch of fun movies that you might not have the chance to see otherwise. The movies I recommend the most are AJ Goes To The Dog Park, Boys Go To Jupiter, and Peacock. Short films are harder to get ahold of, but I recommend Out For Delivery, Lurk, and The Sentry if you are able to watch them. Thanks for reading the article and go watch movies at independent theaters!