Mandy Fabian, 2023, USA, 101 min.

Director Mandy Fabian will be in attendance!

Let’s just say it: Jess is a hot mess. She is impulsive, whiney, and completely self-absorbed. That she is the maid of honor for her best friend is like an afterthought to Jess’ preoccupation with her recent breakup. The wedding is literally in the woods and a reunion of sorts for college friends and partners. College friends coming together for a wedding opens up all the expected cans of worms. Volleyball and campfires wedge open happy youthful memories and pangs of old wounds. Adding to the cringe quotient, Jess is obsessed with reuniting with her ex-girlfriend at the wedding, an obviously foolish endeavor to everyone except Jess. She is full of desperation and inexplicably manages her angst with, um, robust self-care in the most inappropriate situations. Thankfully, Abbie Miller (The Sinner, Justified) as Jess is affably quirky and elicits enough sympathy to give us hope that she will find a way to just get over herself. (Sunny Hall)