Who Would Be King of America if George Washington had been made a monarch?

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Joe Franek is an ordinary man, a baggage handler at an airport in Boston, working in 2001. After not being paid for overtime and facing financial difficulties, he decides to steal a suitcase at his work in retaliation for being blown off by his boss.

But then two planes crash into the World Trade Center, and the suitcase takes on new significance. Upon opening the pilfered bag, Joe discovers something he did not expect: plans for a terrorist attack. The discovery turns his life upside-down in ways he never anticipated, pushing him to think and act in ways he never has before.

Writer-director Abi Damaris Corbin's powerful drama/thriller is cerebral yet propulsive storytelling at its best, with the look and feel and the ambitious narrative scope of a feature. It takes its time to carefully lay out the moving pieces of what becomes a complex gameboard. But as the story unfolds, the pieces fall into place with a weighty sense of inevitability-- and shows how the smallest, seemingly inconsequential details are actually the most crucial.

As with many thrillers, much of the film's initial power rests on an excellent command of craftsmanship. The muted palette, quicksilver editing and a meticulously constructed script efficiently establish character, details and stakes, with a sense of resonance and responsibility. The narrative is actually quite complex and must structure an interlocking chain of events with care and precision, and yet the storytelling moves quickly.

But when the film takes its time to settle upon the central figure of Joe -- a humble everyman with issues, problems and concerns -- he proves to be a grounding figure in this complex narrative. Through actor Mojean Aria's strong performance, Joe gives audiences an anchor as a swirl of circumstances quickens with intensity, as Joe and his fellow baggage handlers watch on TV as two planes crash into the World Trade Center towers.

It's undeniably that much of the poignancy of "The Suitcase" rests on its historical import, on an event that still exerts a powerful influence on geopolitical events and policy today. But it offers a different window to look at the sweeping events of 9/11, one that showcases how the actions and decisions of one seemingly "small" person had an impact on that shocking day.

There were many heroes on the day that the towers fell -- many unacknowledged, unnamed and perhaps lost to the larger sweep of historical memory, but whose roles in the larger mosaic were crucial to saving more lives than we perhaps could ever quantify. "The Suitcase" acknowledges the moral urgency, duty and allegiance to community beyond the individual self at the core of these unnamed people, and asks us to reflect on how speaking up can have a resonance larger than we could ever initially conceive.

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A baggage handler discovers a terrorist plot in a suitcase. Then 9/11 happens... | The Suitcase
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40 Minutes Over Maui is used with permission from Michael Feld and Josh Covitt. Learn more at http://omele.to/3kGWEjn.

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Larry and Penny are a married couple on vacation in Hawaii when something happens on January 13, 2018: everyone on the island gets an alert that a ballistic missile is headed for the island.

Suddenly their vacation is a lot less leisurely, forcing everyone to seek shelter inside. Stuck with one another and with nothing to do, the pair finds themselves scrambling to make the most of their last hour on earth, making their vacation a lot more meaningful than they had planned.

Written and directed by Michael Feld and Josh Covitt, who both co-wrote the script with Steve Feld, this warm, witty comedy takes a pressure-cooker situation when people are their most unvarnished and vulnerable, throws them into a room together and waits for the very human emotional foibles to come to the surface. It's a film about the apocalypse -- and how we never quite act the way we'd expect in the face of imminent doom.

Essentially a two-hander, like many stories in its format and genre it rests on smart, observant writing, with frank and funny dialogue and a sharp eye for the ways that people hide truths and difficult emotions from one another in an effort to maintain the status quo. Larry and Penny seem like a companionable pair who are deeply familiar and affectionate with each other's flaws. But there are fissures underneath the surface of this vacation paradise, and very real feelings they want to give voice to before it's all over.

What gives the story a twist -- and what incites the psychological deep dive -- is the real-life surreal incident of Hawaii's missile alert in 2018, which caused a short but vivid panic for the brief time it was in effect. It causes the couple to quickly reckon with the unfinished business of their life -- which includes an awkward goodbye phone call to their daughter -- even as they pig out on mini-bar food. Of course, they attempt to fulfill their latent long put-off fantasies, but eventually, they're left with nothing but their deepest regrets -- and their deepest love.

Actors Julie Brister and Johnny Ray Meeks are terrific as Penny and Larry, who clearly have a great rapport, as well as unforced but deft comic timing. They're clearly comfortable with one another as a long-married couple would be, and don't let one another get away with anything. What works is that they never act out of rancor with one another, but from a clear base of affection and love -- which comes out in an unaffected, unsentimental and ultimately very sweet way.

"40 Minutes Over Maui" is in the tradition of great American indie comedy, reminiscent of filmmakers like Alexander Payne, who look at people with an acerbic yet deeply humane lens. It takes the twist of a coming apocalyptic event and looks at how ordinary, flawed and loving human beings still go on being ordinary, flawed and loving, even when faced with the possibility of death and destruction.

The fantasy is that we become more profound, wise people in these events. But the fact is, people still squabble over in-laws, disagree over sex, rib each other over what they did or didn't do. It's this ordinariness, in fact, that makes life so rich and people so lovable -- something this small gem of a comedy celebrates with aplomb and affection.

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A couple on vacation deals with an incoming ballistic missile threat. | 40 Minutes Over Maui

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Dennis is a lonely man, living by himself, and his only regular contact is with his overbearing mother. Dennis also has a head that looks like a bag of money, which makes him feel shy and inhibited, and also makes him the butt of many jokes.

But then Dennis goes on a date with a magazine cartoonist named Catherine, and the pair make a romantic connection. But when he finds himself the subject of a joke on a national scale, he starts to question if he'll ever find someone to connect with at all.

Written and directed by Patrick O'Brien, this quirky romantic short has an absurdist premise, with the main character with a literal bag of money for a head, and the film finds humor in how people -- including a homeless man, played by punk legend Henry Rollins -- react to Dennis's difference. But with its blend of melancholy, yearning and vulnerability, it's also a deeply romantic film that will resonate with anyone who has felt despondent or anxious in their search for someone to love and accept them as they are.

The storytelling takes a low-key approach to its absurdist premise, incorporating it matter-of-factly into its dim, muted naturalistic cinematography. The approach and tone are not unlike the work of early Spike Jonze, which also incorporates bizarre twists on reality in ways that invite comment on societal norms and conventions. Dennis's head allows the narrative to examine, with sometimes mordant humor and imagination, how we treat differently-abled and differently-bodied people, and how the world at large often comments on them as if they were objects of fascination and not people.

Dennis himself has a very everyman quality that feels very relatable, especially in his loneliness and desire for connection. Actor Chris Grace gives an excellent, sympathetic performance, and his ease and fluency with voice, gestures and body language more than makes up for the lack of conventional facial expressions from having his face covered as a performer. The scene when Dennis and Catherine make a connection is sweetly touching, which makes its disastrous denouement all the more understandably heartbreaking -- and even dangerous -- for Dennis.

But happily for Dennis and viewers invested in his story, "Moneybag Head" ends on a heartwarming note that feels genuinely earned, especially after all that Dennis has been through. Yet the sweet ending avoids feeling too saccharine because the story never shies away from how indifferent or even cruel the world can be to those who don't quite fit in, and how debilitating it is to be judged quickly without any room for complexity. In such a context, it celebrates connection as the minor miracle that it is.

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A lonely man with a head like a bag of money searches for human connection. | Moneybag Head
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Jack has just come back to his homeland of Australia after over a decade away in paradise. But after being met at the airport by his brother Frank, Jack discovers that the country has radically changed. Citizens report and fine one another for various civil infractions, using their mobile phones to record and upload offenses to a government app.

Jack is in disbelief as he arrives at Frank's home with his wife Margaret, and he can't even believe that swearing is fined and alcohol is banned. There are cameras everywhere, and the only safe place in people's homes is the bathroom. Unable to adapt or accept the changes, Jack attempts to leave the country -- a much harder feat to accomplish than he thought.

Written and directed by Kosta Nikas, this sci-fi short may be named after an ideal paradise of balance and peace, but its title is deeply satirical in how the film portrays the absurdity of the new surveillance state. It constructs a fascinating world that seems only a few steps removed from our phone-saturated society, telling its cautionary tale in an ironically jaunty way.

The writing takes time in its world-building, which is often one of the pleasures of the sci-fi genre. The narrative action at the beginning catalogs the myriad ways that control and order are exerted over people, and there's dour, wry humor embedded in how Frank escorts his increasingly skeptical brother through this brave new world. The bright sunniness of the cinematography and the percolating, cheerful musical score that peppers itself throughout the film also add touches of stylish buoyancy to what is an increasingly dark story.

The aesthetic approach offers a counterpoint to the often horrifying reality shown on screen, in which citizens are incentivized to document one another's offenses through their omnipresent phones. Jack is a stand-in for the audience, looking increasingly askance at how even the most intimate recesses of everyday life can't escape the pitiless lens of a camera and the desperate people wielding them.

It takes some time for the dramatic conflict to emerge, but the world-building is fascinating enough to carry interest through, and is substantial and detailed enough to power an entire series or feature. By the time Jack finally decides that he must escape, the building blocks of the world and story have been carefully laid into place, forming a chain of obstacles that make it harder for him to leave. He seems trapped indefinitely, but then he gets an unexpected chance -- though one that comes at considerable cost.

That cost, however, doesn't seem so bad by the time we conclude "Utopia," which we realize is anything but. Its sense of horror derives not from perversity or violence, but from how the world that the film constructs is only a few clicks from our current reality.

Practically everyone has a smartphone, and the devices are deeply integrated with almost all aspects of our lives, from banking to romance to communication to entertainment. At many levels, we're still reckoning with how mobile technology is transforming our lives and our relationships. A population armed with phones -- and imbued with increasingly knee-jerk punitiveness towards fellow humans -- seems ludicrous, but with deeper reflection, viewers realize those pieces are already in place in other aspects of our culture. Are human beings so weak that they could be weaponized to do a government's surveillance for them? "Utopia" imagines that day isn't as far as one would think.

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A man lives in a society where citizens police each other with their mobile phones. | Utopia
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South Park.S24E00 The Pandemic Special

Primary source used was this book series:

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CREDITS:

Chart: Matt Baker

Script/Narration: Matt Baker

Editing: Jack Rackam

Intro animation: Syawish Rehman

Intro music: "Lord of the Land" by Kevin MacLeod and licensed under Creative Commons Attribution license 4.0. Available from http://incompetech.com