Ice Cold Beer (2026)
Directed & Written by Joey Lopez & Devon Mussett
Starring Andres Collantes
Action
★★★★1/2 (out of ★★★★★)
Joey Lopez and Devon Mussett’s Ice Cold Beer is an expertly minimalist short that addresses the everyday terrorism of ICE in America. The Boxer (Andres Collantes) gets off a long shift at work, so he just wants to get home, relax, and crack open an ice cold beer. As soon as he’s ready to do just that, he’s visited by a group of ICE agents. So he does what anybody would do: defends himself, defends his home, and tries to get back to relaxing after a hard day’s work.
From the Liberty Brew Lager, complete with its own jingle over the credits, and the radio/tv featuring discussions and ads about ICE, to the ass kicking The Boxer delivers to the ICE agents invading his home, Ice Cold Beer is a delicious example of how to do a political film without needing a huge script full of dialogue. There are a bunch of excellent little details throughout the short, though the final method The Boxer uses to finally open his ice cold beer is a chef’s kiss moment after all the preceding brutality. Ice Cold Beer is much needed entertainment in an age of the New American Gestapo. Long live this kind of action cinema.
Blood Sweat & Tears (2026)
Directed by Spencer Glassman
Screenplay by Spencer & Charlie Glassman
Starring Spencer Glassman & Niko Mihajlovic
Comedy / Horror
★★★★★ (out of ★★★★★)
Spencer Glassman’s Blood Sweat & Tears depicts the late-night meeting of a professional woman (Glassman) and a masked man (Niko Mihajlovic) intending to slice her up. The man encounters a problem when the woman refuses to be murdered before calling in sick to work. What ensues is a riotous back and forth between the two before the woman’s incessant professionalism gets on the would-be killer’s nerves a bit too much.
Blood Sweat & Tears is a comical horror takedown of just how deeply capitalism is embedded in the human psyche, as the woman at risk of being murdered simply cannot abide being killed and made to look unprofessional at work. There are a couple of especially standout moments worthy of a belly laugh. Such as when the woman accuses her potential killer of not only killing a woman but trying to hold back her career to which he replies with deadly seriousness: “I’m not that kinda guy.” Or when the woman laments “how hard it is to be a woman in FLEM . . . Fashion, Lifestyle, Energy, and Magic.” Blood Sweat & Tears is just damn good horror-comedy fun, though it also manages to be a clever critique of how ingrained we are with capitalism’s anxieties.
