Two delivery drivers are hired to dispose of a dead body, then must resolve an unforeseen issue before sunrise.


SUNNY SIDE UP is used with permission from William T Phoenix. Learn more at https://williamphoenix.com.


Marlo and Jack are friends and co-workers, though their job is unusual. They're both late-night delivery drivers, hired to dispose of dead bodies all over Los Angeles for their bosses. Yet they're both like any other worker in a tough economy, and any number of young men dealing with dating and crushes. Marlo, for instance, has a crush on a girl he sees at the diner where he has breakfast after a long night working.

But one night, they're on a delivery when they discover an unforeseen issue and an unwelcome surprise. It puts Marlo in a bind, forcing him into a difficult predicament -- one the pair of drivers must find a resolution for before sunrise.

Directed and written by William T Phoenix, this short crime drama has the grainy, gritty feel of a 70s drama, capturing the seedy, almost dingy backdrop of Los Angeles. This aligns the film with a lot of the great Hollywood-based film noirs, ranging from Chinatown to L.A. Confidential, and the storytelling similarly evokes the undercurrent of danger lurking under the surface of ordinary life that films like these explore.

There's no detective in this narrative, though. Instead, the story focuses on the lackeys of the criminal milieu, the "regular Joes" who do the grunt work. Marlo and Jack are drivers who ferry and dispose of the bodies that their bosses rack up in their work. The work is dark and sometimes gruesome, but part of the film's fascinating premise is treating this job as any other and portraying the friends as normal dudes just trying to make a living, like anyone else. And the cycle of grind and hustle has made them almost indifferent to the nature of their job. It's just a paycheck, like anything else.

Actors Ezekiel Pacheco and Juan Wood II portray their characters as regular young men, with an easy back-and-forth that makes their friendship funny and believable, and they find moments of dark humor as they work together. But when they discover one night that their cargo hits closer to home than usual, things go off the rails, and they come face to face with the true nature of their work. They have to decide how to fix the situation -- or face the wrath of their very ruthless employers.

Compelling, at times amusing and strangely wistful, SUNNY SIDE UP refers to how the object of Marlo's affection likes her eggs in the morning at the diner where they eat breakfast. And it's also a title of great irony, referring to the optimism of looking at the world as one filled with opportunity and meaning. Marlo is hopeful that the girl he sees in the cafe will be there again, and he'll have the opportunity to speak to her. Fate, he hopes, will bring them together, connecting two random points in an overwhelming universe. But Marlo and Jack live in a bleak, hard-scrabble world, where the connections are tenuous and sometimes perilous.