Summary

In Little Death Martin’s dissatisfaction with his life drives him over the edge despite his privileged position and access to medication. The film’s strongest aspects are the performances of Dominic Fike and Talia Ryder, whose characters’ stories take precedence over Martin’s. Little Death explores themes of addiction, midlife crisis, and searching for meaning, but its message and direction feel muddled and unresolved.

Martin Solomon dies a little bit every day. He’s a well-paid staff writer on a network sitcom that he feels is beneath him, he hates his fiancée Jessica for seemingly no reason other than she expects him to be an adequate partner, and he has strange dreams that remind him of how little his life has amounted to. Little Death, then, is aptly named — at least for the film’s first half — as Martin experiences everyday indignities that slowly drive him over the edge despite his pharmacy’s worth of pills hiding behind his bathroom mirror.

David Schwimmer stars as Martin in music video director Jack Begert’s feature debut, a bisected comedy-drama about a disparate group of Los Angelenos whose lives (sort of) intersect. Little Death’s satire of Hollywood feels a bit too familiar, its message muddled by murky politics and the word “woke” being thrown around after a producer’s notes on Martin’s script rub him the wrong way. It doesn’t help that Schwimmer gets outshined by Dominic Fike and Talia Ryder, whose characters AJ and Karla only tangentially cross paths with Martin.

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Little Death’s Intersecting Stories Are Only Loosely Connected
Little Death is a comedy-drama film by director Jack Begert that premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival. The film follows a middle-aged filmmaker amid a midlife crisis as he crosses paths with a pair of taco truck owners on the hunt for opioids, setting the stage for a surreal adventure. ProsDominic Fike and Talia Ryder are excellent Little Death’s second half is compelling ConsLittle Death has a muddled message With more time, the film could’ve explored with more nuance

AJ and Karla’s story takes place over one night as they prowl the streets of LA searching for Karla’s stolen car and their next fix. Fike and Ryder have a chemistry that lights up the screen and their friendship serves as the backbone of Little Death and its most genuine, if tumultuous, relationship. Ryder, who first broke out with Sundance hit Never Rarely Sometimes Always, is on fire here, funny and heartbreaking in equal measure. Fike also proves his Euphoria season 2 performance wasn’t a fluke, playing a complicated addict who is trying to make a better life for himself.

AJ, Karla, and Martin are all trying to make better lives for themselves albeit from very different positions.

AJ, Karla, and Martin are all trying to make better lives for themselves, albeit from very different positions. Martin takes his life for granted and, if you asked him if he was an addict, he would likely deny this even though he screams at a pharmacist to refill his Xanax prescription while complaining about the copious amounts of Oxycodone he has at home. AJ and Karla are a little bit more realistic about their addiction, but no less consumed by it.

Dominic Fike & Talia Ryder Steal The Show But Little Death’s Ending Is Just As Confounding As Its Beginning
Once Little Death switches perspectives to focus on AJ and Karla, Martin is all but forgotten, a footnote in their story. It’s a testament to their performances that Schwimmer is but a vague afterthought for the last hour of the film. Even though Fike and Ryder are propelled by rocket-powered performances, though, it’s hard to shake the feeling that this movie is actively searching for something to say even as it unfolds.

Is Little Death a parable about the ways drugs — legal and illegal — ruin people’s lives? Is it about a neurotic man who, when confronted with his own moral failings, goes off the deep end? Or is it about two kids searching for meaning in the twilight years of their youth? Little Death is about all three and, if it had about an hour more on its runtime, it could’ve addressed each of these questions with nuance. As it stands, Little Death is two vignettes — one more compelling than the other – that only loosely come together.

Little Death premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival in the NEXT section.

Release Date January 19, 2024 Director Jack Begert Cast David Schwimmer , Gaby Hoffmann , Dominic Fike , Talia Ryder , Jena Malone , Sante Bentivoglio Runtime 110 Minutes Writers Jack Begert , Dani Goffstein Studio(s) AC Films , Protozoa Pictures , Psycho Films