© 2026 The Couch Critic
An old man lives with a real doll that resembles his late wife, treating it as if it were her. One day, a man next door discovers the doll’s existence.
Dead Parents Club is a hybrid documentary blending observational footage, experimental performance, and cultural analysis to challenge the pervasive "orphan trope" in popular culture. While children's media like The Lion King, Frozen, and Finding Nemo frequently use parental loss as a narrative tool to spark a character's independence, the lived reality of grief is vastly more complex. The film follows real individuals who have lost parents as they collaborate on a unique theatre production. By stepping into the roles of iconic fictional orphans like Simba and Frodo, the cast members weave their personal stories of trauma into the scripted scenes. The resulting performance offers a poignant, absurd, and unexpectedly funny exploration of identity and healing. Moving between fantasy and lived experience, this documentary examines how we navigate profound loss, build deep connections, and ultimately learn to parent ourselves.
Alone on Christmas Eve, Michael makes a last-ditch effort to win back his ex-girlfriend. Although repelled by his sudden reappearance, the promise of $1000 buys ten minutes of Honey’s time as she reluctantly sits through his declaration of love. Michael’s dreams of a heartfelt reunion are shattered when he is promptly rejected by a stripper who refuses to participate in his fantasy, challenging toxic romantic comedy tropes normalized through contemporary media. Based on her semi-autobiographical stage play, Never Walk Alone, Julie Phan offers a desensationalized interpretation of sex work through an intimate representation of the person underneath the projection.
Ordered by Luma Arles for their Bodies Never Lie exhibition
In Edy Modica’s debut comedy special, she discusses her longing for human connection and all of the ways she’s contorted herself in search of it.
Jesse leaves an increasingly hostile living situation, seeking refuge with friends. However, they soon discover that they're no longer as welcome as they once were.
Three sharp-tongued outlanders recount their own perspectives on the evolution of time, love and humanity through a series of tableaux.
A wordless 16mm experimental short film exploring the human relationship to nature, labor, and the evolution of machinery.
Short for Portuguese television channel Canal180's "Jogo Cruzado" series.
Aspiring directors, Cam and Felicity, pitch a revue that gets rejected immediately. In order to put on the show they've always dreamt about, they hatch a plan. But what happens when that plan goes wrong?
TOE TAGS – Feet as Fetish, Fragment, Ghost From Phallacies, which stripped the male body of shame and censorship, to Analogies, exploring the taboo of the anus, Toe Tags steps into a new obsession: the foot. Feet become fetish, memory, and horror: a woman inherits her mother’s shoes (CLARA), a transvestite searches for feet that fit (THE PERFECT PAIR), a child avenges his monstrous father (PODOPHILE), a schizophrenic confuses nail visions with reality (NAILS), a man dances one last time with his wife’s ghost (SHOES NUMBER 43), and a mermaid mourns the tail she abandoned (PART OF YOUR WORLD). ToeTag – where obsession walks, steps, and sometimes, kills.
Raghu and Megha wander through a hushed forest, silence heavy between them, until unspoken truths fracture their bond. Songs the Woods Sing unfolds as a haunting meditation on love, loss, and the invisible violences that echo in the spaces between what was and what can never be.
A teen with a guilty conscience films his family vacation, but after finding a hidden gun during a game of hide-and-seek, paranoia begins to take hold.
A man in his mid 50s becomes a Taxi driver to help pay for something, will he manage to?
The Strokes continue their behind-the-scenes journey, capturing the collaborative process of refining musical ideas and experimenting with new sounds in a remote studio setting. The band navigates creative challenges and evaluates various song structures as they work toward crafting their next record.
A dual snapshot of Irish summer; the favourable and the unavoidable.
17th-century nun composer Rosa Giacinta Badalla is our guide through the tumultuous life of medieval saint Radegund as she is traded as a pawn among murderous kings, escapes queen-hood for the convent, performs miracles, and prays for a happier second marriage... to Jesus.
When Ravi meets Sukhi, he wants to settle down and have a 'normal' life. But his best mate Jay has other plans and soon he's dragged back to the reality of the streets.
9 months after the first attack on Omega Sigma Theta, the Pink Poodle is back, targetting the sorority house. This time around, a new batch of sorority girls joins Kolie, Destiny, Jules, and Mikaela on a mission to survival.
