The New Year
Director: Benjamin DeHart
Writer: Benjamin DeHart, Jessica Sattler
Based on: T.A. Pratt’s short story Happy Old Year
Cast: Jacob Buchholz, Rosie Sullivan, Mickey Kost
Seen on: 5.10.2022

Plot:
After a couple of very bad years, Dave (Jacob Buchholz) contemplates how badly his life turned out on New Year’s Eve. That’s when Elsie Jarrow (Rosie Sullivan) shows up and offers him a deal: go back to any New Year he would like in his life. Dave jumps at the chance, but of course, there is a catch.

When I saw in the Marla Mason anthology Do Better that Pratt mentioned that one of the short stories – Happy Old Year – was made into a movie, of course I needed to watch it. Happy Old Year is a story that struck me mostly for its cruelty – an attribute that this short film does keep. It will probably be of particular interest to Marla Mason fans, but it works on its own. The film itself is very obviously a low-budget student project, with all the bumpiness that entails. But it is a faithful adaptation that is certainly not without charm.