The director of the audacious festival hit LEMON and the critically acclaimed ZOLA, Janicza Bravo cultivates the unsettling, the absurd, and the hilariously warped. This selection of four of her brilliantly outré shorts—including the award-winning dark comedy GREGORY GO BOOM, starring Michael Cera—showcases the singular, gonzo sensibility that has made her one of American independent cinema’s most exciting voices. Centered around terminally awkward misfits so cringe-inducing that you can’t look away, Bravo’s surreal, stylistically brash films are by turns bleak and bitingly funny commentaries on loneliness, privilege, and the search for human connection.
The following conversation between director Janicza Bravo and Sam Fragoso, host of the podcast “Talk Easy,” was recorded in 2020.
Directed by Janicza Bravo • 2013 • United States
Starring Michael Cera, Sarah Burns, Brett Gelman
An awkward, paraplegic man (Michael Cera) goes looking for love in this daringly oddball comic nightmare, winner of the Sundance short-film jury prize.
Directed by Janicza Bravo • 2014 • United States
Starring Gaby Hoffmann, Jason Lew, Megan Mullally
A desperately lonely woman (Gaby Hoffmann) tries—and fails spectacularly—to make friends.
Directed by Janicza Bravo • 2016 • United States
Starring Alison Pill, Joshua Leonard, Anthony Carrigan
It’s an unhappy birthday for a woman (Alison Pill) whose mental disintegration begins when she misplaces her phone.
Directed by Janicza Bravo • 2017 • United States
Starring Michael Cera, Alex Borstein, Michael McMillian
In this surrealist noir, a traveling knife salesman (Michael Cera) discovers something sinister behind every door.
