Posies Short Film Review

“We have become too hateful, too unfeeling, and I’m afraid if we don’t fix this soon, we will all become monsters.”

Posies is an acclaimed, atmospheric, tense and evocative 2022 short film from the Alter division of Gunpowder and Sky Studios, directed and written by Rachel Stavies. Starring Andy Favreau and Anna Diop, Posies is being re-released on YouTube and other streaming services on Thursday, 10/10/24 in coordination with the culmination and conclusion of Chapell Roan’s Midwest Princess summer tour. The burgeoning musical sensation provided the score for the short film along with her wistful track, Bitter, which weaves in and out of the narrative.

“Odd smell.”
“It’s a new perfume. It’s earthy.”

Maddy (Diop) sits in front of her vanity in a dilapidated apartment. She’s trying to glam herself up for a date but isn’t in the mood. There’s something wrong with her. Small, bloodless fissures are splitting her flesh and with practiced, delicate movements, she painlessly stuffs yellow Posie petals into her wounds. Her smartphone rings again. It’s Jack (Favreau), pushing her to confirm their plans, pressure she doesn’t need to know that going out in her condition can only lead to bad things.

She does it anyway. It turns sour almost from the start. They meet pretty, but he’s too concerned with the past. Fine, Maddy figures, she’ll give him the past; she begins to confess to him her sins. She tells him what things she’s done, who she’s done them to and whom she’s done them with. She tells him in all sorts of ways and in no uncertain terms that she thinks there’s something very wrong with her. He’s not listening, he just wants everything to be the way it was and wants to take her home. Fine, Maddy figures.

Can Jack stop being such a Chad and listen to anything his date is actually saying? Can Maddy get past her embarrassment and let him know what she’s afraid of? Should he be afraid? Please watch Posies to find out.

“We have a modern-day Hitler in the White House!”

Posies is very curious. In its brief running time, the slim green stalks of a narrative begin to protrude from the film’s soil, along with a hint of a plot and an intriguing hook. Chapell Roan’s music is an excellent fit and Bitter’s lyrics are a good showcase for Maddy’s spiraling mental state. The production design and set dressing are impressive. Maddy’s apartment is covered with enough peeling paint to satisfy David Fincher. An antique phonograph, its segmented horn arching proudly, contrasts with the gleaming glass rectangle of Maddy’s smartphone. There’s a sprinkling of backstory and context that the audience is afforded while Maddy is preparing for her night out, provided by the TV talking heads buzzing in the background.

 This reviewer is impressed with Posies. It is polished, it’s poignant and it left this reviewer quite intrigued to find out what follows. Is Maddy the main character? Is she the Patient Zero, a modern-day Typhoid Mary, a harbinger warning of a plague of monsters and madness?  Is she the Head Vampire or is she a hapless, helpless victim, a canary in a nationwide coal mine? What rough beast, its hour come at last, is about to sweep over an unsuspecting world, and what, if anything, can be done?

Posies is available to stream on Youtube 10/10/24