A middle-aged filmmaker on the verge of a breakthrough. Two kids in search of a lost backpack. A small dog a long way from home.

Acclaimed music video director Jack Begert’s idiosyncratic debut feature, co-written with Dani Goffstein, takes a cockeyed but sensitive look at Hollywood dreams and disappointments. Little Death is a dark comedy about a screenwriter’s (David Schwimmer) midlife identity crisis and a crime drama about a pair of taco truck entrepreneurs (Talia Ryder and Dominic Fike) in search of their next opioid fix. In true Los Angeles fashion, these characters collide at a tragicomic intersection, and the film shifts gears from barbed showbiz satire to an introspective hangout vibe. Throughout, Little Death stays deeply attuned to the inner lives of its restless dreamers, examining their efforts to find meaning and connection while struggling against the fickleness of fate and the illusion of free will. Begert deploys disorienting bursts of surreal montage and oddball AI animation to convey Schwimmer’s fractured psyche and draws on a terrific ensemble including Jena Malone, Gaby Hoffman, and Karl Glusman.—MC

Available in person. Also available online for the public (January 25–28) and credentialed press and industry (January 24–28).