Jethica (2023) Movie Drinking Game
Take a Drink: whenever anyone smokes
Take a Drink: every time a creepy guy shows up
Take a Drink: “Jessica!”
Do a Shot: for mentions and memories of murder
By: Henry J. Fromage (Two Beers) –
Some Sundance films, even well-received ones, take a bit longer to get distribution or streaming release than others. It’s usually the harder to categorize ones.
I’ll go ahead and try to categorize Jethica now. It’s a low-budget yet well-shot dark indie comedy about a pair of women who appear to have male stalkers or at least hangers-on that is also a ghost story and ultimately a philosophical examination of what it means to be human. Not exactly easy to categorize, I suppose.
A Toast
There’s a lot going on below the sharp quips and lensing and the softly painted yet blazing New Mexican sunsets here, even when we get to the meat of the story and learn that (Mild Spoilers) not only is Jessica’s (Ashley Denise Robinson) lisping stalker Kevin (Will Madden) close by, he’s actually dead and his ghost is who’s hanging around calling her name all day.
One layer of this film is communicating the disturbing and soul-sucking experience of being stalked in a way that would hopefully red flag any guy (or gal, I suppose) who’s ever engaged in such behavior, even at much smaller increments. Another, though, is recognizing the humanity in even those mentally deluded and potentially dangerous people. It’s a strange approach to such insights, but an effective one.
Beer Two
At 75 minutes, and with as much goes down in the film, it does feel like this could have been configured as a bit tighter short film that consequently punched a bit harder.
Verdict
Jethica is an odd, funny, and strangely low-key yet affecting story about ghosts, stalkers, and murderers all.
Jethica arrives on Fandor February 14th its exclusive U.S streaming release. Check it out!
