Too Cool for School (2014)

Amazing short drama film

An apathetic teenager with sex on his mind decides to ditch school. The decisions he makes culminate into something of a waking nightmare, tearing apart any facade he has put on and revealing his true personality.

I’m the most impressed by how things look visually, though. It’s unlike anything I’ve seen and I love it, even though it’s (probably) not really that complicated.

We made it in winter 2014 as a vehicle to get potential financiers interested in Super Dark Times. We were already on our fifth draft of the feature, and I already had an extensive director’s treatment in place. We brought on Richard Pete and Jett Steiger to produce—both colleagues from SCAD where I graduated—and Richard thought it was in our best interests to make something narrative in the same stylistic tone that was also unique unto itself. Amazingly, we got into Critics’ Week at Cannes, and we got things rolling from there. – Kevin Phillips to Vice magazine in 2017.

Directed by Kevin Phillips.
With Tristan Lake Leabu, Esther Zynn.