I'll Be Awful
A tale of potential motherhood.
Feature film
LOGLINE: Matt and Maude throw a housewarming party. New worries turn into unsettling manifestations for Maude when she discovers that she’s pregnant.
CURTIS, who suffers from dementia, is at the wrong house again and must be fetched by his nervous son, GLEN. MATT and MAUDE arrive at their new home. They discover a grave in the backyard that simply reads “BABY.”
As Matt and Maude prepare for a housewarming party, Maude reveals that she is pregnant, a dilemma they must face as a couple. They just need to get through this party first.
Throughout the day and night, Glen's fears of someday having dementia manifest as an ever worsening physical illness, while Maude's worry and over-active imagination upsets reality.
The party turns into a self help seminar, burlesque show, and a play. Maude’s inner struggles become physical as her belly grows and her doubts run rampant, ultimately creating a parallel universe. Maude must accept a life that has been decided for her, while giving up a future she wanted, but can never truly have.
“I’ll Be Awful” is a drama that severs tension with absurdism and magical realism. Thematically, this story deals with the fears of motherhood while exploring parallel motifs of memory, anxiety and the blissfulness of forgetting.
Worry, hesitation, fear for the future and aches for the past; this story is about wavering between feelings of dread and hope and questioning whether we even deserve a happy ending.
This drama utilizes fantastical elements to discuss universal themes with relevant subject matters while remaining fresh and unique in tonality for the more introspective cinephiles. Surrealist visuals mix with themes and dialogue that illicit existential dread in this film festival darling.
