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Currently Playing: IT'S A SUNDAY | Omeleto

A woman babysits. Alice's boyfriend has just broken up with her. And no matter how much empowered punk rock she listens to, she's heartbroken and suffering. But she has to get it together: she's got to babysit her niece and nephew. But it's hard to balance her duties as a babysitter and the emotional triage she needs as she deals with the breakup. But an unexpected situation gives her a chance to be a hero -- forcing her to lift herself out of her devastation and become the powerful woman she's meant to be. Directed and written by Mark Flehmer and Humza Syed, this dark, ironic short dramedy is, on one hand, a snapshot of a woman trying to keep it together after a sudden, difficult breakup. Alice has been with Trent for a long time, and their abrupt breakup has leveled her, and she's falling apart. There's both emotional honesty and knowing comedy in how Alice must balance crashing out with her familial duties wrangling her precocious niece and rambunctious nephew. But as her emotional axis spins out of control, she's confronted with a situation that requires her confidence and control. The storytelling is quick, sharp and full of spiky, sometimes abrupt flourishes, but it's always grounded in Alice's emotional ups and downs, deftly conveyed by actor Allie Torem, who is precise and always authentic to whatever is being thrown at her. She's raw as she leaves a distraught voicemail to her now ex, but then she must be the cool, fun aunt and babysitter. That internal conflict is the film's chief interest early on, and it mines both humor and relatability from it. There's a grittiness to the visuals, but the occasional skewed angle and free-wheeling editing add a degree of absurdism and sardonic energy to the film's emotional terrain, keeping it from melodrama. But Allie soon finds her bearings, thanks to charmingly unexpected sources of wisdom, and she's able to be fully present for her niece and nephew. We think we're in for a well-earned ending of uplift as Allie finds her inspiration once again. But the short takes an unexpected turn, one that reveals IT'S A SUNDAY as a fable of truly grim irony. And it might have more to say than initially thought. When faced with a real danger, it might not matter how bad-ass or powerful we are. There are limits, it seems, to "inspo" and the rhetoric of individual personal empowerment. IT'S A SUNDAY. Courtesy of Mark Flehmer and Humza Syed at https://instagram.com/mark.flehmer.