A chaotic, weed-fueled morning after where two guys dance around their mutual crush, completely unaware that the world outside might actually be ending.
The Morning After the Party of Your Life
Most morning-after short films follow a very predictable rhythm. Two people wake up with dry mouths, exchange polite apologies, and stumble around looking for missing socks. Ethan Roberts takes that familiar premise in At Lucy's Last Night and turns it into a sharp, funny, and surprisingly sweet meditation on post-college paralysis and unspoken crushes.
Petey is nursing what he calls the great gay uncle of all hangovers in his messy living room when Zach knocks on the door to return a forgotten phone. Zach is the supposed straight guy Petey has been silently crushing on since freshman orientation. What follows is a smoke session filled with nervous chatter, awkward pauses, and two internal monologues running at absolute full blast.
Two Brains Overthinking Every Single Second
The smartest trick this film pulls is giving both guys their own private panic room in Petey's bathroom. First, Petey stares in the mirror trying to use eye drops while spiraling through rhythmic, poetic thoughts about how much he wanted Zach the night before and how terrified he is of being just another casual experiment. But when Zach steps into that exact same bathroom a few minutes later with a sudden nosebleed, we get his side of the story. It turns out Zach is just as completely overwhelmed, completely smitten, and terrified that the feeling might actually fade.
Joshua Bippert brings a wonderful, fidgety neurotic charm to Petey. You instantly buy him as the guy who uses sarcasm and weed as a shield against getting hurt. Joshua Michael Payne plays Zach with just the right mix of jock exterior and soft, earnest confusion. When Zach is frantically trying to stop his nosebleed while confessing to the mirror how intense their connection felt, the chemistry between the two actors really lands.
A Weirdly Romantic Sci-Fi Twist
While the boys are busy deciphering glances and wondering who should make the first move, weird things start happening in the background. Screams in the distance, strange noises outside, and bizarre physical symptoms hint that something catastrophic is going on beyond Petey's walls. Yet the boys are so wrapped up in each other that the literal end of the world barely registers as a minor distraction.
Clocking in at just seventeen minutes, the short moves fast, sounds hilarious, and captures that specific college transition period where you have no idea what comes next. It is fresh, quirky, and honest about how easy it is to miss what is right in front of you until time runs out.
