A recovering addict tries to reconnect with his younger brother on a day trip.


SQUALL is used with permission from Emmi Shockley. Learn more at https://imdb.com/title/tt22082154.


Louie is a recovering addict on his way back to visit his family for a day. He's nervous to be back in his old neighborhood, but he's even more nervous to see his younger brother Jack.

When Louie finally meets up with Jack, their conversation is awkward and wary. Louie knows things are strained due to his past with addiction, but he's talking to Jack to make amends. But the younger boy isn't quite sure how to take it. At first, Jack refuses Louie's overtures of reconciliation, but when he changes his mind about taking a trip out with his brother, the pair find themselves facing something bigger than they realize.

Directed and written by Emmi Shockley, this raw, unvarnished short drama captures one man's attempt to sift through the rubble of his life as he attempts to put it back together again after a struggle with addiction. Told with a stripped-down, almost documentary-like naturalism, Louie is trying to make amends with his brother Jack, but despite Louie's sincerity and earnestness, his brother doesn't quite accept the apologies.

The storytelling is almost bare-bones in its minimal dialogue, lack of musical score and hand-held camerawork, but the details it does capture are telling and evocative. A small exchange at a bodega establishes that Louie has been gone for some time and looked unhealthy and strung out before. And even the first moment he talks to Jack, we can immediately sense a wall between the siblings.

As Jack and Louie continue to talk at their once-shared home, the details of their situation are fleshed out. As Louie, actor James Kelley (also a producer on this project) excels in portraying the yearning for connection and understanding at the core of his character's motivation, as well as the deep shame and guilt he feels for what he put his family through. As Jack, young performer Jack Messina is wonderfully natural and understated as the younger sibling with a heartbreaking wariness towards Louie. He's seen this before, and he's learned to keep his brother at a distance.

Together, both actors are compelling, present and restrained, which makes their exchange all the more poignant and piercing. When both brothers set out for a trip to the Rockaways, long promised by Louie to Jack, it's a start to the repair process, and Louie is thrilled for a second chance. But as a storm comes in, putting a dampening note on proceedings, we're struck by the fact that Louie's recovery won't be smooth sailing, and neither is the process of repairing the relationship between him and Jack.

Well-observed and sensitive, SQUALL's strength lies in its recognition of how hard it is for addicts to embark on recovery, and how they must not only reckon with the consequences of their actions, but their own self-judgment, shame and sorrow in the face of their loved one's anger and resentment. They must face their lives head-on, without filters: a difficult act for anyone, much less those learning to face truths without any buffers of dependency.