Love & Other Crimes (2026) Short Film Review: A Half-Baked Crime Drama

Share it

Clarito Zapanta’s “Love & Other Crimes” hovers somewhere between a short and a full-length feature. This 22-minute indie crime drama begins in medias res, plunging us straight into the heart of the story. Such an abrupt approach works in favor of establishing immediate stakes, acting as a narrative hook to draw audiences in. Alas, Zapanta’s opening is wholly devoid of tension despite capturing a situation that should be chilling. A man and a woman are tied up and gagged in chairs facing one another, while another man paces back and forth in the backdrop. The tied-up man’s face looks battered, but he attempts to console the woman sitting across him. The stilted nature of this brief scene is enough to clue us in on this drama, as things don’t get any better from this point onward.

Cut to Noah (Justin P. Slaughter), who recounts the context leading up to this violent incident in what seems to be an interrogation room. He reminisces about meeting Shaye (Jaelyn Sierra) at the local diner, which he would frequent under the pretext of ordering pancakes. While the simmering attraction between Noah and Shaye is sweet, their interactions feel inauthentic from the get-go. There are tell-tale symptoms of two people falling for one another: longing stares, shy utterances, and soft smiles punctuating every sentence. But Zapanta doesn’t delve deeper into the bond beyond these superficial indicators — in fact, Shaye is a complete non-entity, as she isn’t provided a personality beyond her feelings for Noah. This would’ve been rather egregious in a film with fleshed-out male characters, but “Love & Other Crimes” doesn’t lend depth to anyone, not even its male lead.

These glaring flaws have little to do with the film’s duration. 22 minutes is ample time to construct a compelling fictional world that feels lived-in. In fact, the most visceral cinematic experiences manifest themselves through shorts that encapsulate the full force of creative and technical artistry. I’ll highlight Carlos A.F. Lopez’s “Dream Creep,” which I had the pleasure of reviewing for SXSW last year. This short manages to shock and satisfy within a mere 13 minutes, using every millisecond to plant the seeds of fear into our minds. This makes Zapanta’s 22-minute runtime feel like a broad canvas in comparison, as the exact beats of the story could’ve been etched with greater impact and gusto.

Brandon Newman’s script has all the ingredients are potentially exciting (if hackneyed) crime story. Two young, hope-filled lovers are juxtaposed against the ruthless violence that drives the drug trade, which Noah inadvertently gets involved in. Parker (Jon Meggison) and Jason (Jordan Nancarrow), who act as enforcers of such a shady underbelly, aren’t convincing either, as their motivations aren’t laid out for us to parse. The classic “show, don’t tell” rule is broken as soon as Noah keeps iterating that Parker’s intentions have always been noble, despite fate having dealt him a cruel hand. We know next to nothing about these people, save for a faint outline of their day-to-day routines.

“Love & Other Crimes” ends on a note of abrupt chaos, cementing the uneven structure of the film. There’s not much to glean here between the awkward line reads and flimsy character motivations. It is a story that you’ve seen played out a million times, expressed in more substantially meaningful vignettes.