Married Life, Distorted and Deliciously Strange

Read Time:4 Minute, 52 Second

MOVIE REVIEW
Marriaginalia
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Genre: Comedy, Short, Surreal
Year Released: 2025
Runtime: 4m
Director(s): Hannah Cheesman
Writer(s): Hannah Cheesman
Cast: Kayla Lorette, Rodrigo Fernandez-Stoll
Where to Watch: shown at the 2025 Toronto International Film Festival

RAVING REVIEW: TIFF often thrives on scale—gala premieres, sweeping epics, star-driven dramas. But every so often, it’s the smallest entry in the lineup that makes the strongest impact. With a runtime of just over three and a half minutes, MARRIAGINALIA holds the title of the festival’s shortest short, and yet it hardly feels like it. In fact, it plays like a concentrated dose of surreal comedy, twisting the rituals of marriage into something at once distorted and affectionate.

Written and directed by Hannah Cheesman, whose previous short SUCCOR earned TIFF acclaim, MARRIAGINALIA reimagines domestic life as a stage where small ruptures—a distorted world, a body doing unexpected things—become both comic and oddly touching. Starring Kayla Lorette and Rodrigo Fernandez-Stoll, two performers renowned for their comedic timing, the film captures a lived-in relationship with all its quirks, annoyances, and, although exaggerated, the real-world moments you share. The difference here is Cheesman’s lens: reality bends, time feels elastic, and the couple’s bond remains steady even when the world around them gets strange.

What makes the short fascinating is its weird undercurrent. Cheesman doesn’t shy away from the body’s surprises—movements and transformations that might unsettle in another context. Yet, in this compact narrative, they’re embraced as part of the rhythm of life together. The odd becomes funny, even celebratory, precisely because the couple treats it as ordinary. It’s a dynamic that plays into Cheesman’s stated intent: to imagine two people so deeply enmeshed in their own bubble that the bizarre becomes their everyday reality.

Visually, MARRIAGINALIA commits to its world. Cinematographer John Ker crafts a look that feels timeless, almost stuck in a liminal space between eras. Production designer Emily Dawn Dickinson and costume designer Alexandra Filtsos extend that feeling—clothes and interiors hint at a past moment while still breathing in the present. The choice of a 4:3 aspect ratio locks viewers into an intimate and closed world, forcing us to focus on the couple’s domestic life without distraction. It feels hermetically sealed, deliberately claustrophobic, as though we are intruding on a marriage that has shut the world out.

At just under four minutes, the editing by Cam Anderson is crisp and precise. There’s no wasted frame, no overindulgence. Cheesman and her team manage to carve out three distinct acts, each with its own flair, without the short feeling rushed. The sound design by Alex Bullick and score by Kieran Adams add playfulness to the surreal touches, leaning into what Cheesman herself calls “playful fuckery”—a perfect descriptor for a film that never takes its own weirdness too seriously.

For some, the short may feel like a teaser more than a fully realized piece. Cheesman has hinted at developing a feature version, and MARRIAGINALIA does play like a proof of concept—an appetizing amuse-bouche rather than a full meal. But that’s part of its charm. By compressing an entire relationship dynamic into under four minutes, the short forces the audience to adjust their expectations. Instead of long arcs, we’re offered glimpses: sharp, strange, funny, and uncomfortably true. I’m genuinely interested in how this concept could be developed into a feature, as many aspects would need to change, and what narrative would be added to it. It truly is intriguing!

The performances seal it. Kayla Lorette brings a mix of deadpan energy that makes even the most unsettling moments funny. Rodrigo Fernandez-Stoll grounds the short with warmth while still leaning into Cheesman’s stylization. Together, they embody a couple that is serene and slightly askew—a portrait of love that is less about perfection and more about comfort in the bizarre.

Ultimately, MARRIAGINALIA thrives on contradiction: distorted yet tender, brief yet expansive, surreal yet rooted in the everyday. It’s a comedy that laughs not at marriage but through it, spotlighting how love can withstand—even embrace—the uncanny. For a film shorter than many trailers, it leaves an aftertaste far stronger than expected. TIFF’s shortest short is also one of its most memorable, and that in itself feels like a triumph. This is something that will leave you smiling with cautious uncertainty, and that’s in the best way possible.

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[photo courtesy of SOFT CITIZEN, THE LONG REACH COMPANY]

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