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I caught a screening of The Looking Planet at the 2015 Phoenix Film Festival. While it was one of many films included in a showing of Science Fiction Shorts, it didn't have to be. What I mean by that is that it could have just as easily been at home screening with non-SciFi shorts and would have easily been at home screening with feature length films. It was that good. The difference between you, as a reader of this review, and me is that I had no idea what I was in for and you have the advantage of being told to seek this out. It can stand with any of those other types of films regardless of its short running time because of what it does with the time it has - and yes, fleshing this out to a full length feature might be an option if the ideas are there... or maybe its perfect the way it is now. What makes this film a joy is that its equal parts smart, humorous, thought provoking, beautiful to watch, and technically brilliant. It proffers one imaginative way in which our universe might have been created... and wouldn't it be grand if scientists eventually discovered that this filmmaker got it right?! Just go find this film, sit back, open your eyes ears and mind, and be prepared to leave the theatre pondering the possibilities while wearing a big grin on your face.

If "Bread and Butter" is playing at a film festival near you, or it picks up a distributor as it hopes to do, then by all means seek it out. Seen at The Phoenix Film Festival, it's a wonderful take on a modern search for a (very late blooming) love life for it's leading lady. Perfectly cast, written, and filmed - and the soundtrack is fantastic, you'll be rooting for her even if neither of her first dating partners are the one for her. Still, she learns and you love her for it. Wonderfully so, no character here is black or white, good or bad, right or wrong - just like all of us, and that's what makes this film ring true. All of her problems are not nearly solved by the film's end, but you leave seeing her better equipped to face and eager to try all that life has to offer. Word of advice - don't see this with your mother. In lieu of a real boyfriend our heroine here makes ample use of the next best thing, but cinematically in a very discrete way.