Little Death: A Disjointed Journey Through LA's Underbelly

“Little Death,” directed by Jack Begert, is a muddled but promising film that delves into addiction, creativity and identity in present-day Los Angeles. The movie premiered at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival and boasts an ambitious narrative structure that ultimately fails to come together.

David Schwimmer plays Martin Solomon, a jaded Hollywood writer going through a midlife crisis. This marks Schwimmer’s most dramatic role since “Friends,” which will likely surprise his longtime fans who have come to know him as Ross Geller. However, despite the actor’s best efforts, his character arc feels half-baked compared to what happens in the second half of the film.

Halfway through the movie, it takes an unexpected turn by following two young drug addicts named AJ (Dominic Fike) and Karla (Talia Ryder) during one chaotic night in Los Angeles. This sudden shift serves as both the most interesting part of the film and its biggest downfall — Fike and Ryder give standout performances that bring authenticity to their roles, but their story never quite connects with Martin’s.

Begert and co-writer Dani Goffstein try to tackle too many themes: Hollywood’s creative bankruptcy; how technology has affected art (specifically through AI-generated imagery); addiction being everywhere around us. However, these ideas are often underdeveloped or heavy-handed. Some of the dialogue can also get didactic in parts one through four where people speak more like mouthpieces for different cultural/political viewpoints rather than fully fleshed-out characters.

The visuals are just as scattered as the rest of “Little Death.” There are some trippy moments while focusing on Martin — including a gender-swapped version of him played by Gaby Hoffmann — but those experimental touches largely go away during part five which leaves everything feeling tonally disjointed.

AJ and Karla’s story is where “Little Death” shines brightest. Their journey through the underbelly of Los Angeles feels more real and emotionally satisfying than Martin’s plot, which is centered on Hollywood. Fike and Ryder have great chemistry together on-screen, breathing life into characters that could easily fall into cliché territory.

The film does a good job at showing how addiction affects people from different walks of life. It illustrates this through Martin using prescription drugs, as well as AJ and Karla engaging in more illicit activities throughout their night together. “Little Death” paints an intricate picture of substance abuse within our society today.

However, all these pieces never come together quite right. The first half introduces themes/characters that it doesn’t know what to do with later on; two storylines are left hanging without much explanation for why they matter or how they’re connected. In the end, this lack of coherence sinks the movie because you can’t help but feel like there was potential here but it just wasn’t fully realized.

I think “Little Death” is a flawed but fascinating film. It reaches for something bigger than itself, and occasionally makes it there — even if those moments are few and far between. Performances like Fike’s and Ryder’s make this worth watching when everything else falls flat.

In the grand scheme of things though? This still feels like an early effort from Begert rather than his true breakout moment behind the camera. He definitely has vision as a filmmaker — unfortunately though, focus isn’t one of them based off what we see here tonight where some parts had me checking my notes over again due to structural inconsistencies throughout certain sections not only made sense opposite each other.

If the audience is prepared to accept its experimentalism and overlook any faults, “Little Death” can provide an interesting yet unfinished reflection on contemporary existence and a quest for significance within the disorder of things. Nevertheless, people who want a more coherent story might be annoyed by this movie’s disconnected method.