Every Time We Meet for Ice Cream Your Whole Fucking Face Explodes (2021)

Disclaimer: my professional publishing career goes way back to publishing the writer of this film, Carlton Mellick III (Ugly Heaven, Beautiful Hell), as well as him publishing one of my first chapbooks (Sick Days) through his independent company Eraserhead Press. We haven’t kept in touch much since the years we worked together, but I’ve always admired his output of writing. So when I saw there was a short movie based on one of his works, I quickly added it to my watchlist.

This 7-minute movie was a bigger treat than the ice cream cones featured in this film. Usually stories from independent authors and presses get made into movies with really low-budgets and get the raw end of the stick. These projects visually appear low budget with bad actors and cheap production standards. But this bizarro film really came together nicely.

The thing that good bizarro authors like CM3 do is to mold the surreal, the absurd, the ludicrous with real, everyday life. Good bizarro stories go beyond weird, but parallel and symbolize reality. This movie represents both the author and the bizarro movement in literature really well.

Every Time We Meet for Ice Cream Your Whole Fucking Face Explodes comes across with heart but retains the surreal edge of bizarro. The acting is really good and the short film is well-paced with a great ending.

Check this short film out and also the fiction of Carlton Mellick III. Because every time you read his work, your whole fucking head will explode.

Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)