Short Film Review: “Michael Solace” Contemplates Selling Out and Selling His Soul
The film blends reality and the supernatural world together, leaving the viewer unsure of what’s real and what’s merely a figment of Michael’s agitated imagination.

Romeo Castellucci's production of Christoph Willibald Gluck's mythic opera. Concurrently via projected text, we learn the story of Els, a bedridden woman with locked-in syndrome, conscious but near-completely paralyzed. A live video feed from the hospital shows Els listening to the music along with the audience.
The film blends reality and the supernatural world together, leaving the viewer unsure of what’s real and what’s merely a figment of Michael’s agitated imagination.
Ultimately, Wicked is a story about the cost of being othered, the pain of being misnamed, and the quiet revolution of standing in your truth.
Lady Bird (Saoirse Ronan) tells her mother (Laurie Metcalf) that she wants to live through something — something that matters.
Not only does the system prevent upward mobility, but it makes it incredibly easy to slide from comfortably middle class to unhoused.