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Watch: Laura Moss’s Fry Day
New York-based director and production designer Laura Moss landed on Filmmaker’s 25 New Face list this past year on the strength of Fry Day, her entirely exemplary short film about a teenage girl selling Polaroid photos on the eve of serial killer Ted Bundy’s execution. With this macabre event as a backdrop, Moss goes on to create, as I wrote in the profile, “a nail-bitingly tense, mournfully sad coming-of-age adventure.”
I went on to write:
That Fry Day uses the disquieting atmospherics and moral turbulence of the serial killer genre without indulging in gratuitous physical violence is a testament to Moss’s extraordinary directorial skill. “When we wrote this movie,” she says, “I sent it to different people, and one response that disturbed me was, ‘She needs to get raped. It’s not about anything unless she gets raped and murdered.’ I said, ‘I’m pretty sure if I do this right, that doesn’t need to happen.’”
Thanks to the folks at Topic, Fry Day is available now for all to see. Needless to say, it has my highest recommendation, and I think it’s also a great film for new filmmakers and film students to check out. There are copious coming-of-age tales out there, and by referencing this historical event and then subverting the narrative Moss has made something completely original that hits much deeper-than-expected notes.
