Callback is a short film all about dissatisfaction with your own life creeping into your relationship and the choices you make. Do you support your partner just like they’re supporting you? Or do you go off the deep end? Oh and then enter into a competition that destroys everything but proves you’re a better actor? Director and writer Matthew Puccini answers these questions in an unforgettable short film that I can’t stop thinking about.
At the center of the story are Max (Justin H. Min) and Will (Michael Hsu Rosen), boyfriends on a similar career path but with different advantages. The delicate peace they’ve been living in is shattered when Max discovers that Will got a callback. It all spirals out of control into a pivotal exchange that wasn’t a gentle coming together of people who understand each other. Instead my jaw was on the floor.
As someone who is working through some self-worth issues herself, Max is a relatable character. You want the best for your loved one. But sometimes when you see your loved one getting the things that you want, that love turns to bitterness. And we might not think that our loved ones can tell how we feel. But sometimes they do. And that leads them to change their behaviors, just like Will did by hiding his callback until dinner.
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It’s important to know that Will hiding his callback isn’t done in a malicious way. How do I know this? Because I’ve been in a very similar situation. And with perspective I understood that the person who hid something from me was more worried about my reaction and the pain that it would cause me instead of celebrating their own joy. And that stopped me in my tracks, the realization that someone didn’t feel like they could celebrate themselves or share something because I might react badly.
That’s not what happened in Callback. Instead we got this deliciously tense short film that kept ratcheting up the tension as Max unraveled. Because Max can’t understand why Will isn’t as angry as he is about life. And he continues to push the buttons of his boyfriend because misery loves company. Also he can understand that feeling of disappointment, disillusionment, and distrust. He can’t trust Will’s empathy, kindness, and patience.
What Max is feeling is twisted and ugly. But sometimes jealousy doesn’t make sense and the only way that we can get through it is by talking about it.
Min and Rosen go back, forth, and through these painful yet frantic emotions that come with jealousy and wanting the best for your partner. And it feels like I’m watching one of those Hollywood marriage dramas that ends up getting Oscar nominations. That’s how good Min and Rosen were at expressing the range of their characters’ love but pain at the situation that they are facing in the dead of the night. Because sometimes these arguments can’t be planned and coordinated.
Then the ending came.
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Because you can tell that Max is dealing with some heavy emotions of disappointment and is trying to tear his world down because that pain is familiar. And Will is doing what he seemingly always does, supporting and trying to lift up his partner. So when Max starts crying, the anger between them disappears in an instance. And you dive forward into the final moments of this short film with expectations of them squashing this pain and agreeing to talk about it tomorrow. That doesn’t happen.
This is the point of my review for Callback where I don’t spoil the ending. Because you should watch it.
But what I will say is that it was the right choice for Max to go from a hundred to zero and then 100 again to close off this short film. And I don’t think that it would have been as effectively cutthroat and twisted if it wasn’t for the exchange between Min and Rosen at the end. It was all in the eyes. Disappointment, love, but a whole heaping amount of awe.
Callback screened at the 2026 Sundance Film Festival.
