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Currently Playing: I APPROVE THIS MESSAGE | Omeleto

A man runs for office. Adam Hoffman is running for a seat in Congress, trying to appeal to a broad swath of voters. Running as a moderate in suburban Atlanta, he's likable and sensible. But as he’s gaining traction, a video of a much younger Adam is leaked online, showing him and his anarchist friends plotting to deface a monument honoring the Confederacy. Adam's campaign manager and the rest of the team go into damage control. Caught up in a media maelstrom, Adam tries to walk the line between his past idealism and his present reality. But the balancing act leads to an identity crisis, and he is forced to make a choice about what he really believes. Directed by Craig Newman and written by Michael Barringer, this quick-witted, fast-moving short comedy is both a sharp-eyed send-up of the modern political landscape, putting both opportunistic politicians and a media landscape more interested in clicks than truth in its crosshairs. Smart and fleet on its feet, its agile storytelling speaks to the contemporary moment as it builds a compact but incisive character portrait of an idealist making his way through the political machine. The storytelling immediately immerses us in the hustle and bustle of modern politicking, setting up Adam as a young, energetic Congressional hopeful appealing to voters through his energy, common sense and reasonable demeanor. But that persona is detonated when a video of Adam's anarchic past surfaces, derailing his campaign as they're shooting a video promo for fundraising. These plot developments reflect real-life political campaign peccadilloes, but the writing and direction inject moments of satire while keeping the stakes for Adam real and alive for the audience. If Adam and his team can't resolve this crisis, it reveals him as inauthentic, which is anathema to what he seems to promise and represent. Shot with dynamic handheld camerawork that conveys immediacy and anxiety, its style is very of-the-moment, reflecting how Adam is constantly being seen and interpreted through the eye of a camera. What's fascinating is how this consciousness seeps into how Adam sees himself as he becomes increasingly immersed in the scrum of the crisis. As Adam, actor Craig Newman plays a man faced with a chasm between his instincts and convictions and the ruthless pragmatism of politics, where he must package himself to appeal to voters. He has to confront who he really is and what he really wants, and choose to either reconcile his past or embrace the demands of the present and future. His final choice is made at the end of I APPROVE THIS MESSAGE, and its ending image of Adam is ironic, funny and disquieting all at once. But it also makes us think about the compromises baked into politics and asks how many compromises carry us far from what we believe. Voters crave authenticity, they often say, but in a media landscape and political machine devoid of critical thought, politicians have to be personalities as much as potential policymakers to get into office. In reshaping those personalities to be as consumable as possible, politicians may reshape themselves in ways that affect who they are, and perhaps even the people they represent. I APPROVE THIS MESSAGE. Courtesy of Craig Newman at https://instagram.com/cvnewma.