Film
Homegrown
A ten-minute film about a single father landscaper who, after a heart attack, hides his diagnosis from his teenage son and brings him into the family business instead—teaching self-sufficiency in the shadow of mortality. Intimate, purposeful, and unafraid of hard truths. For anyone who understands that love sometimes means difficult silence.
Should you watch it?
Watch it if you enjoy small, unhurried father-and-son stories where the real conversation happens over yard work, and a few minutes is all it needs.
Skip it if you want a story with room to breathe, since at ten minutes it packs its emotional arc into a tight sketch with little space to linger.
What it asks of you: Ten minutes, unhurried and plainspoken, with few words and a steady eye on ordinary labor, so you give it one quiet sitting and attention to small gestures.
Not sure? Find tonight's pick in a minute.
If you liked this
Manchester by the Sea2016
A father grapples with his own limitations and what he can and cannot give his son. Quiet, devastating, and completely genuine about male grief and imperfect love between men.
But Profoundly sad. No catharsis, no reassurance—just the weight of loss and the work of surviving it.
The Florida Project2017
A child and parent trying to hold their fragile life together through ingenuity and closeness. Shot with such warmth and specificity that poverty and precarity become almost luminous. Heartbreaking without condescension.
But The ending is difficult. Some find the documentary realism exhausting rather than moving.
A Ghost Story2017
About loss, time, and what we leave behind—including our children. Genuinely strange and unexpectedly moving. The kind of small, strange film that stays with you.
But Slow, deliberately weird, and dependent on your patience with abstraction. Not for everyone.
Not sure tonight? Get a pick in a minute, starting from Homegrown
The wildcard
Something you would not have found on your own.
The Kindergarten Teacher2018
Both explore the danger in what a parent hides from a child and why they hide it—where protection becomes control.
About an adult trying to shape a child in their image, convinced they know what's best. Obsessive, unsettling, and a brutal inversion of good intentions. Maggie Gyllenhaal is unforgettable.
But Morally uncomfortable and deliberately confrontational. It doesn't let you rest in sympathy.
More like this (7)
Moonlight2016
Three chapters of a Black boy growing into a man. Lyrical, tender, and about how love shapes us even—or especially—when it's broken. Unforgettable.
But Quiet and elliptical. Refuses to explain itself. If you need narrative propulsion, this will feel slow.
Minari2021
A Korean-American family trying to build something from nothing. About ambition, sacrifice, and what gets lost in translation between generations. Achingly human.
But Meditative, not dramatic. The emotional payoff comes from accumulation, not incident.
The Farewell2019
Family secrets, cultural collision, and the quiet ways we protect each other. Funny and devastating by turns. Bilingual, bicultural, and completely itself.
But Comedy and tragedy woven so tightly that some find the tonal shifts jarring.
Hunt for the Wilderpeople2016
An old man and a reluctant boy forced into the bush together. They bicker, bond, and teach each other what matters. Hilarious and genuinely touching.
But The whimsy might feel lightweight if you're in a darker mood.
The Dig2021
A story about duty, legacy, and what we pass to the next generation through work and care. Beautifully made, with restraint and real emotion underneath.
But Period drama pacing. Some find it stately rather than engaging.
Aftersun2022
A father and daughter on holiday; underneath, the unspoken weight of his struggle. Tender, aching, and achingly specific about male vulnerability.
But Ambiguous and impressionistic. Asks you to sit with feeling rather than understand plot.
Caché2005
Both examine the lies we tell to protect ourselves and those we love—and the true cost of that protection. Both refuse to forgive the lie, even when it comes from love.
Michael Haneke's masterpiece about a family haunted by their own moral blindness. What we choose not to see. Brilliant, maddening, and unforgettable in the worst way.
But Glacial, austere, deliberately withholding. Haneke despises sentimentality; this is its opposite. Also morally dark in ways that don't resolve.
People
Cast
- Carlos MuliaManuel
- Maggie Dewan-SmithDr. Ross
Tracey RooneyKathy
Directing
- Matt MacedoDirector
Writing
- Matt MacedoWriter
Production
- Xinyi HongLine Producer
- Xianqi DuProducer